WASHINGTON — Alabama Congressman Mike Rogers (R-AL3) on Thursday expressed concern that he does not believe President Obama has the same resolve to fight the so called Islamic State that Jordan’s King Abdullah II has displayed in recent days.
“I was very impressed with the resolve shown by the King of Jordan when I had the opportunity to meet with him this week,” Rogers told Yellowhammer. “If only our President showed the same.”
Members of the House Armed Services Committee, of which Rogers is a member, met with King Abdullah Tuesday shortly after news broke that ISIS had burned to death a Jordanian air force pilot they had been holding in captivity since his plane went down this past December. The terrorist organization subsequently posted a graphic video of the execution online.
One member of the committee said Abdullah was so adamant that Jordan would eradicate the Islamic State threat in their country that he quoted Clint Eastwood’s famous “Unforgiven” speech. In the movie, Eastwood’s character, William Munny, says, “Any man I see out there, I’m gonna kill him. Any son of a b**** takes a shot at me, I’m not only going to kill him, I’m going to kill his wife and all his friends and burn his damn house down.”
At dawn the day after news broke that the Jordanian pilot had been killed, Jordan executed two prisoners whom the Islamic State had been seeking to have released.
“We are waging this war to protect our faith, our values and human principles and our war for their sake will be relentless and will hit them in their own ground,” Abdullah was quoted as saying.
Rogers said he hopes President Obama, whose Administration has often not wanted to identify the terrorist threat as being associated with Islam, adopts a stance more closely aligned with King Abdullah’s recent show of strength.
“The Islamic State is an extreme and brutal group of terrorists who harken back to medieval times. We as a country cannot turn a blind eye to their blatant disregard for human life and barbaric-style of killing innocent Americans and other victims from around the world,” he said. “We must send a strong response to the Islamic State and I hope President Obama will rise to the occasion and put a real strategy in place before it is too late.”
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— Cliff Sims (@Cliff_Sims) December 3, 2014
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