Administration Pushes Its Islamic State Strategy on a Skeptical Congress

President Obama is placing pressure on Congress to help pursue his plan for the U.S. mission to fight the Islamic State—sending top defense officials to testify before a Senate panel Tuesday to make the administration's case. But lawmakers are still hesitant about the president's strategy.

A day after the president gave the country an update on the strategy to fight the Islamic State, the Senate Armed Services Committee convened with Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Martin Dempsey as witnesses. Armed Services Chair John McCain quickly made his discontent with the president's latest remarks known.

"President Obama delivered remarks that were in delusion. It is right, but ultimately unneeded, to point out that we have done airstrikes and pushed equipment out of the territory," McCain said Tuesday. "None of the progress the president cited suggests that we are on a path to success."

On Monday, after meeting with officials at the Pentagon, Obama called the U.S. mission to defeat Islamic State militants a "long-term campaign," and pointed to the 5,000 airstrikes carried out against the group that killed militants and destroyed training camps, tanks, and bomb factories. He then shifted his focus to Capitol Hill: "If Congress really wants to help in this effort," he said, it should confirm Adam Szubin, his administration's nominee for Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial crimes.

"This is a vital position to our counterterrorism efforts," Obama said. "Nobody suggests Mr. Szubin is not qualified. He's highly qualified. Unfortunately, his nomination has been languishing up on the Hill, and we need the Senate to confirm him as soon as possible."

Carter and Dempsey are making a routine of their tag-team testimony. Last month, after Obama said that the administration did not yet have a "complete strategy" for fighting the terrorist group, Carter and Dempsey went to the Hill to provide one before the House Armed Services Committee. This time around, the duo continued to explain the plan, including the need for the Iraqi government to help in the enrollment of ground forces.

"When we have effective ground forces, under the control of the Iraqi government, we are prepared to do more to support them," Carter said. "But we need to have those effective ground forces because local forces on the ground, we know from experience, is the only way to create a lasting defeat of ISIL, and that's what the strategy's all about."

During his testimony, Carter admitted that the number of Syrian fighters that the U.S. is currently training, which stands at 60, is "much smaller than we had hoped for at this point." McCain later called it "not very impressive."

Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly questioned Carter on the Iraqi forces' ability to retake the city of Ramadi, which fell to the Islamic State in May.

"This will be a test of the competence of the Iraqi security forces, and it's a test that they must pass. And therefore our and the coalition's involvement is to try to train and equip and support them to be successful," Carter said.

Lawmakers are also being put to the test by the administration and by one another.

Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine, who has pushed Congress to pass an authorization for military force in the fight against ISIS, put blame on his colleagues for inaction. "What Congress is supposed to do is to provide a budget to you to defend the nation and win this battle. Congress is supposed to authorize a war that is now 11 months in," he said. "We have not done either."

As for now, the duration of the U.S. military mission is expected to be lengthy, as Dempsey reiterated.

"It bears repeating this is the beginning of a complex, nonlinear campaign that will require a sustained effort over an extended period of time," Dempsey said. "We have to be just as agile as the network of terrorists we face. We are constantly evaluating our approach and making sure we are resourcing it appropriately, balanced with our own global commitments."