Senate

GOP senators: America will be attacked unless Obama changes course

by Jordain Carney - 02/04/16 6:12 PM ET

A pair of hawkish Republican senators predicted Thursday that a terrorist attack against the United States is imminent unless the Obama administration changes its foreign policy

“I will make a prediction, and I hope I’m wrong. If they don’t change their policies toward Syria … an attack against this homeland is coming, and it’s coming from Syria,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said. “It is being planned as I speak.”

{mosads}Graham and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who chairs the Armed Services Committee, say Obama has mishandled Syria’s years-long civil war, which has helped provide a safe haven for terrorist groups including the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

The two senators — who are vocal critics of the president on foreign policy —suggested that unless the Obama administration beefs up its military strategy to defeat the organization the United States will be at risk, including the possibility of a terrorist attack similar to those in Paris late last year.

McCain called further attacks “inevitable,” adding that it “will happen, and the responsibility will lay at the doorstep of Barack Obama and his minions.”

The two senators want the administration to include a ground troops component as part of its military strategy, something Obama has sought to avoid, in order to disrupt plots against the United States and defeat ISIS.

McCain also took a shot at Vice President Biden, who suggested that Iran taking U.S. sailors into custody after they traveled into Iranian territory was “standard nautical procedure.”

“What planet has the vice president of the United States been on?” McCain said Thursday.