John McCain blames Obama for violence in Iraq
US Senator says Iraq may become a 'second Syria'. McCain said in an address to the US Senate: "The events this week show what Americans left behind was an Iraqi state that was not able to stand on its own."
WASHINGTON, D.C.
US Republican Senator John McCain has blamed US President Obama's policy of withdrawal from Iraq for leaving it "unprotected" against the threat of militants.
Stating on Thursday that Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki had been unable to cope with threats on the ground since Obama withdrew US forces from Iraq, McCain said the country could become a "second Syria or a restored Caliphate" following the capture of Mosul and Tikrit by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
McCain said in an address to the US Senate: "The events this week show what Americans left behind was an Iraqi state that was not able to stand on its own."
McCain criticized Obama for believing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were over, saying: "Conflicts end when the enemy is defeated. Iraq war did not end because the forces against Iraq are not defeated yet.
"The Taliban is alive and in Afganistan. Because the conflict is over in the eyes of the President of the US, it is not over in the eyes of the enemy."
He added: "When the policy was orchestrated I, and many other senators, asked the Obama administration to leave a small force behind in Iraq and Afghanistan."
McCain urged the Obama administration to take immediate action to break the advance of ISIL militants across Iraq.
