By REBECCA
KAPLAN FACE THE NATION June 15, 2014, 12:43 PM
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., warned that the next 9/11
attack could emanate from Iraq and Syria if the U.S. does not take steps to immediately
halt the advance of the Islamic militants sweeping
toward the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.
"We need air power immediately to stop the
advance toward Baghdad," Graham said on CBS' "Face the Nation"
Sunday, warning that theIslamic State
of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)
- the jihadists who are an offshoot of al Qaeda - could control the entire
northern half of the country and use it to march on Jordan and Lebanon while
Iran moves in to control the south.
The South Carolina senator added that the director of
national intelligence and the head of the FBI have both warned that ISIS, also
known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, has promised to
carry out the next 9/11 attacks.
"I think it's inevitable. The seeds of 9/11 are
being planted all over Iraq and Syria. You don't have to believe me, this is
what they're telling you they're gonna do. They're not hiding their agenda.
They want an Islamic caliphate," Graham said. "They plan to drive us
out of the Mideast by attacking us here at home."
President Obama said Friday that while the U.S. will not send combat troops
back to Iraq, he has asked his national security team to "prepare a range
of other options." He also added that any U.S. action will have to be
accompanied by a "serious and sincere effort by Iraq's leaders to set
aside sectarian differences."
In a separate interview on "Face the
Nation," former Obama National Security Adviser Tom Donilon cautioned that
airstrikes are "not a panacea."
"You need to have targets, you need to have a
military plan, and it needs to be coordinated with the rest of your efforts.
Most importantly, though, any direct military action by the United States needs
to be done when we see that the Iraqi government has actually pulled itself
together politically," he said.
Donilon said he would recommend the U.S. support the
Iraqi government's counterterrorism efforts and provide intelligence, materiel,
advice and planners to restore the Iraqi ground forces.
Like Mr. Obama, he stressed that any action should be
contingent upon Iraqi leaders taking steps toward a more inclusive government
and bringing back some of the competent military leaders who have been pushed
out for political reasons.
Graham, too, agreed that American assistance needs to
be coordinated with a political solution. He said that there is "no way in
my view that [Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki] can pull this off."
Both Graham and Donilon laid much of the blame for the
current violence at Maliki's feet, but Donilon was less insistent that he
depart immediately.
"It's not clear that he can pull this off at this
point, and we'll have to see. They have a government formation underway, and we
need to see what the Iraqi people can do," he said.
Graham conceded that the president has "all bad
options" when it comes to dealing with Iraq because airstrikes could
result in the accidental deaths of civilians but the fall of Baghdad and a
collapse of the Iraqi government would be the "worst case scenario."
He also said it was almost inevitable that the U.S.
would have to rely on Iran to help hold Baghdad, likening the situation to the
American alliance with Joseph Stalin during World War II to defeat Adolf
Hilter.
But he warned that the Americans would have to take
steps to ensure that Iranian intervention didn't result in them trying to
create a sectarian government in Baghdad with a puppet Shia Muslim leader.
"We also need to put them on notice: Don't use
this crisis to create a satellite state of Iraq controlled by Iran,"
Graham said.
Face The Nation
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