https://youtube.com/watch?v=XiUnNgF6Gz4
Senator Tom Cotton refused to accept President Obama’s explanation that calling the Islamic State ”Islamic” would “legitimize” the group, pointing out that the Muslim fundamentalists are still winning on the battlefield despite the White House’s tiptoeing around the term.
The Arkansas Republican and Army veteran appeared Thursday on CNN’s The Lead, where Jake Tapper asked him whether the president’s assertion this week that calling Muslim fundamentalists “Muslim” somehow lends them credibility.
“The Islamic State doesn’t need any credibility or legitimization from Barack Obama,” Cotton said. “They get that on their own by the successes they’ve achieved in Iraq and Syria. They appear, to many radical Muslims all around the world, to be winning this war right now. And people like a winner.”
The Islamic State has continued to gain ground in Iraq and Syria despite months of coalition air strikes, and Cotton argued that American forces should step up their activity in the air and on the ground.
“The president and his West Wing advisors are severely constraining the military,” the senator said. “If it’s necessary, to have an effective strategy to defeat the Islamic State, that we put forward air controllers on the ground to help guide in more effective bombing campaigns, or special operations forces, then we have to be ready to do that.”