Thornberry: No vote on military authorization without clear strategy

By Jacqueline Klimas, Jacqueline Klimas

Published December 20, 2015

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Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, said Monday that many lawmakers are willing to support a greater U.S. involvement in the fight against the Islamic State, but only if the administration comes up with a clear strategy.

"The real reluctance members of Congress have is many of us are willing to support greater action, but we want to see a strategy, an approach that can lead us somewhere rather than incremental, too late, trying to catch up kind of activity," the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said at the Defense One Summit.

While the war against the Islamic State has stretched on for more than a year, Congress has yet to pass an authorization for the use of military force specific to the conflict. The administration is operating under previous authorizations for force in Iraq and against al Qaeda, something many say is a legal stretch.