Boehner: Congress will aid Iraq

Congress will ensure the Iraqi government has the military aid and training it needs to defeat Islamic militants and other terrorists, Speaker John Boehner wrote in a letter to the new Iraqi prime minister on Friday.

“From military aid to technical and training assistance, we will stand with you to ensure more innocents are not slaughtered — and that the threat does not metastasize further,” Boehner (R-Ohio) wrote to Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who took office this week.

{mosads}“And my colleagues and I will stand shoulder-to-shoulder with you to work to ease the suffering of innocent minorities and others who are being persecuted at the hands of ISIL.”

Boehner was responding to a letter from al-Abadi, who vowed to defeat the terrorist group known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), also translated as ISIL, and pledged that Iraq would lead the fight. The prime minister also expressed his condolences for the brutal executions of two American journalists at the hands of ISIS.

The Speaker invited the prime minister to meet with him during his next visit to Washington and said the U.S. welcomed Iraq’s role in fighting ISIS. Congress is currently debating how to respond to President Obama’s request to authorize training and arming Syrian rebels battling ISIS.

“Iraqis understand better than most the brutality and evil that ISIL represents,” Boehner said. “The developments we’ve witnessed over the past year demonstrate that the war against terrorism in Iraq did not end with the withdrawal of U.S. troops.  

“We fully appreciate that Iraq does not have the option of withdrawing from this struggle.”