Republican Senator Ron Johnson is concerned about blowback from America’s limited air campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria — if the U.S. fails to destroy the group entirely, President Obama’s plan to intervene will be just like poking a hornet’s nest with a stick, he says.
The Wisconsin lawmaker spoke Monday with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews about President Obama’s strategy to deal with the Islamic State. Johnson welcomed the president’s military action, but worried that an insufficient amount of air strikes may only serve to anger the ultra-violent Islamists.
“One of my concerns is if we don’t destroy them — it’s like having a hornet’s nest in your backyard, recognizing, ‘Hey, that’s a danger to my kids, I’ve got to get rid of it,’” the senator said. “But instead what we’re going to do is poke them with a stick for three years! That concerns me!” Johnson said.
Obama-administration officials have warned the campaign against the Islamic State could extend past the president’s term in office.
“If the objective is to destroy ISIS, I don’t think we have a strategy in place that will accomplish that goal,” Johnson said. “And again, I’m just concerned about poking that hornet’s nest with a stick for three years.”
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