Boehner: Obama AUMF not strong enough

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Sunday that President Obama’s request for a war powers authorization against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is not strong enough to defeat the terrorist network.

{mosads}“The president is asking for less authority than he has today under previous authorizations,” Boehner said in an interview on “Fox News Sunday.”

“I don’t think that’s smart,” Boehner continued. “We need a robust strategy to take on ISIL. No one has seen one from this White House yet,” he added, using an alternate acronym for ISIS.

Obama sent Congress draft legislation last week authorizing the use of military force against ISIS, asking lawmakers to vote specifically to approve a new war for the first time since the controversial 2002 Iraq War vote.

The proposed legislation limits Obama from the use of “enduring offensive ground combat operations.” The request is widely seen as being deliberately vague language in an attempt to win over critics on the left wary of mission creep and those on the right who don’t want to restrict possible military action against ISIS.

Boehner said Sunday that Obama’s request was too narrow to get the job done against ISIS.

“In addition to a robust authorization, I think we need to have a robust strategy and I don’t believe what the president sent here gives him the flexibility or the authority to take on this enemy and to win,” he said.

Boehner said he would support giving Obama a broader war authorization if the president asked for one.

“My first vote in the Congress was to give George Herbert Walker Bush the authority to drive Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait,” he said. “I’ve always believed that we should give the authority to the president to win the battles we need to win and I don’t believe the authorization the president asked for will give him the tools he needs to defeat ISIL.”

Boehner added that he disagreed with Obama’s assessment of the strength of ISIS.

“He says ‘well the threat is being diminished,’” Boehner said of Obama. “Well the fact is ISIL continues to gain new territory.”

Boehner said Congress would consider changing Obama’s authorization.

“I look at what the president sent here as the beginning of the process,” he said. “We’re going to have exhaustive hearings…and we’re going to have bipartisan discussions on how we strengthen this authorization.

“We’re going to have discussions, we’re going to have a thorough hearing, we’re going to have a big debate and how that turns out, I think it’s too early to predict,” Boehner continued. “To do this correctly, I think we’re going to have to have bipartisan support on both sides of the capitol, so they’ll be a lot of discussions.”