TUCSON (KGUN9-TV) -- U.S. Senator John McCain, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, released the following statement Sunday night on President Obama's address on the threat of terrorism:
"President Obama's address tonight failed to obscure what has become increasingly clear to the American people: that we are not winning the war against ISIL, and that the threat of terrorism against our homeland is real and growing. As the President said, America should never give in to fear. But neither should we fear to acknowledge the nature and severity of the threats we face and do everything within our power to confront them.
"President Obama is fond of invoking lessons of our nation's recent wars. Yet the simplest and most important lesson is the one he failed to mention tonight: apocalyptic terrorists cannot be allowed to have sanctuary in ungoverned spaces from which to plan attacks against us. Yet after more than a year of an indecisive military campaign, ISIL maintains its sanctuaries in Iraq and Syria from which to conduct and inspire attacks like Paris and San Bernardino.
"President Obama offered no changes to his reactive, indirect, and incremental strategy. He continues to assume that time is on our side. It is not. If we do not destroy this threat now, and fast, no one should be surprised if America gets attacked again. Whatever we would do in response to such an attack is what we should do now to prevent it. America needs a strategy to destroy ISIL as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, that is not what President Obama described tonight."
