Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Tuesday flatly rejected the notion that military officials divulged details of a spring offense in Iraq to intimidate forces with the Islamic State.
“It’s entertaining, people saying ‘Well we told them we were going to invade France, we told them we were going to invade Kuwait.’ Yeah, but we didn’t tell them who, where, when and how,” McCain, chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee told The Hill.
{mosads}“Their response is ridiculous,” he added.
Last week a senior official at Central Command told reporters a surprising number of operational details about a spring offensive to free Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, of up to 2,000 ISIS fighters.
The official said it would take about 25,000 members of Iraq’s security forces, trained by U.S. troops in as little as three to four weeks, to retake the city and that the attack likely would happen in April or May.
The disclosures have provoked bipartisan alarm on Capitol Hill.
On Friday, McCain and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) fired off a sharply worded letter to President Obama that said releasing the details risked the success of the mission.
“I was similarly mind-boggled and didn’t understand at all how this could be part of a strategic plan in what they’re talking about,” Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), an Iraq War veteran, said during a CNN interview on Monday.
Some observers have speculated that the military provided the information to drive fighters with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) from Mosul before the offensive starts.
McCain laughed at that idea.
“I know they’re clever but what they’ve said is signaling to the enemy how they’re going to do it when they’re going to do it and where they’re going to do it. That’s their plans. We all know that,” he said.