Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) said Wednesday after returning from a trip to the Middle East that he was “more convinced than ever” that the U.S. should be involved in fighting Islamic extremists.
Kinzinger, a U.S. Air Force veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, argued that despite any public weariness with more than a decade of wars in the Middle East, airstrikes against the extremist group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) were necessary.
{mosads}”While many folks are understandably hesitant to get involved in the Middle East again, after seeing the situation on the ground in person, I’m more convinced than ever that we are doing the right thing,” Kinzinger said. “We need to continue our airstrikes and expand them to push back ISIS. We must support vetted rebel groups on the ground.”
“We all wish the world were a better place and it wasn’t necessary for us to fight again. But there is no other country on earth that can stand up to the evil we are facing. If we don’t do it, nobody will. And that means the bad guys win,” Kinzinger continued.
Kinzinger, who was accompanied by Rep. George Holding (R-N.C.), met with the Free Syrian Army, Syria Transition Assistance Response Team and the Syrian Opposition Coalition. They met with the groups in Turkey because it was too dangerous to travel to Syria.
The lawmakers also traveled to Erbil, a city in northern Iraq controlled by the Kurdistan Regional Government and a United Nations refugee camp nearby.
Kinzinger called the refugee camp “haunting” and said a no-fly zone over Syria would help ease the humanitarian crisis.
“At the end of the day, these are the people we must fight for – the innocent civilians being brutally and unfairly attacked. We must fight for them and so that this brutality never reaches our own soil,” Kinzinger said.
Lastly, Kinzinger and Holding met with U.S. troops stationed in Iraq.
Congress may begin consideration of a full-scale authorization of military force against ISIS when it returns to Washington after the elections. But House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has indicated a vote won’t come during the lame-duck session.