GOP lawmaker: Execution of Jordanian pilot a ‘game-changer’

Rep. Adam Kinzinger said Wednesday that the execution of a Jordanian pilot, burned to death by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), must be a “game-changer” for President Obama.

The Illinois Republican criticized the president on Fox News’s “America’s Newsroom” for not taking the ISIS threat seriously. 

“Not the degrading of ISIS, not the containing of ISIS, but the destroying and crushing of ISIS has got to be the first and foremost goal,” he said. Obama has previously said in speeches that he plans to “degrade and destroy” the terrorist group. 

Kinzinger, a former Air Force pilot and a current member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, panned the president for not adequately articulating a strategy to defeat the terrorist group in Syria, adding that he’s concerned the president just wants to run out the clock and leave the threat for his successor.

“He says, ‘I don’t chase headlines,’ but I don’t think he’s really chasing ISIS right now either,” Kinzinger said, channeling the president’s State of the Union address, during which Obama warned against making “rash decisions reacting to headlines instead of using our heads.”

ISIS released a video Tuesday of militants burning a captured Jordanian pilot alive. Jordan had offered to trade two captured al Qaeda militants to save the pilot, the first fighter captured from the international coalition fighting ISIS.

Kinzinger warned that no one knows exactly how many hostages ISIS has and that the group could repeat its “’beast-like’ actions.” He said that the international community, specifically moderate Muslims, must repudiate ISIS’s actions. Some are beginning to do so, he added. 

“If they’ve shown that they are willing to burn a man alive,” he said, “this could easily touch an American or anyone else, frankly.”

The U.S. is leading a coalition of nations, including Arab counties, to beat back ISIS. Obama’s plan has been to use American and coalition airstrikes to augment local forces on the ground.

Kinzinger backed those tactics and said America needs to embrace its role and not be “ashamed” of leading the fight.

“It doesn’t mean that we should put 200,000 troops on the ground, it really doesn’t. But it means that we have unique capabilities to bring these partners together in order to create a fierce alliance.”

“ISIS cannot stand against troops on the ground from these native countries, these indigenous forces, or American airpower. ”