It’s Time For Action

While the Obama administration appears reluctant to acknowledge the Islamic State’s barbarous intentions — and thus cannot decide whether to eliminate the Islamist aggressors or merely “manage” them — Rep. Frank R. Wolf, R-10th, suffers from no such uncertainty.

“This isn’t going away,” the veteran congressman told The Winchester Star on Thursday. “And with each week, it’s getting worse ... They’re gaining.”

True to the first rule of conflict — know your enemy — Mr. Wolf, who has traveled extensively in the Middle East, is under no illusions about the faction that has beheaded two American journalists in the past two weeks while seeking to carve out a caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria. They have “resources, money, equipment, fervor” and have made “unbelievable use of the Internet” in recruitment efforts worldwide, Mr. Wolf said. Foreign fighters — brimming with “training skills, knowledge, and hatred” — have flocked to their standard and endorsed their intentions, which the group’s leaders have made abundantly clear.

“We are the target,” Mr. Wolf said, noting that the Islamist slayer of journalist Steven Sotloff directed his comments to President Obama and, thus, to America.

And so, when Congress returns today, Mr. Wolf, who spent the last week before the August recess pleading the cause of the Christians and Yazidis targeted by the Islamic State, will introduce legislation authorizing the use of military force against all international terrorist groups. He will also push a bill he introduced in March and is currently before the House Foreign Affairs Committee that would grant the administration authority to restrict travel to countries where these terrorist groups are actively engaged.

He will not be alone at the hopper. As the administration dithers, a bipartisan consensus is emerging on the need for action — or, at the very least, a coherent response. Democrats as diverse as Sens. Kay Hagan (North Carolina), Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts), Al Franken (Minnesota), Bill Nelson (Florida), and Virginia’s Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, as well as ranking House Foreign Affairs member Eliot Engel (New York), are speaking essentially as one in urging the administration to, as Mr. Warner says, “come to Congress with a clear strategy and political and military options for eliminating the ISIL threat.”

Congressional involvement, Mr. Wolf says, is critical: “Congress has to participate; it just can’t criticize. ... There must be a debate and a vote, to show the country that we’re together on this, that we’re offering a solution.”

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