The top military officer in the Middle East told lawmakers Tuesday morning that U.S. forces are making progress in the effort to defeat the Islamic State, but asked them to undo sequestration cuts to give troops more flexibility to respond to crises in battle.
Gen. Lloyd Austin, commander of U.S. Central Command, said that the Islamic State is on the defensive in both Iraq and Syria because of U.S. airstrikes that began in August.
“We are making progress. In fact, we’re about where we said we would be in the execution of our military campaign plan,” Gen. Austin told the House Armed Services Committee. “We are having significant effects on the enemy.”
Since airstrikes began seven months ago, Gen. Austin said U.S. strikes have killed more than 8,500 Islamic State militants, eliminated the group’s primary source of revenue in oil refineries and degraded leaders ability to command and control the terrorist troops.
Despite the progress, Gen. Austin said there is still more to do. While he said he understands every corner of the government will have to do more with less, he urged lawmakers to undo sequestration cuts, set to come back to full force in fiscal 2016 after some relief the past couple years.
“I remain concerned that capability reductions can and will effect our ability to respond to crises,” he said. “The resulting loss of flexibility makes the U.S. and our interests increasingly vulnerable.”
Lawmakers are expected to ask Gen. Austin about the president’s proposed authorization to fight the Islamic State. The three-year authorization would allow the president to continue strikes, but limit his use of U.S. ground forces, which has drawn criticism from some members of Congress.
Christine Wormuth, the undersecretary for defense policy, said approving an Islamic State-specific authorization would send a message of support for the president’s plan.
“I would provide a clear and powerful signal to the American people, to our allies and to our enemies,” she said.
The administration has said it wants buy-in from Congress on the military action even though it claims authority for the strikes under previous authorizations from 2001 and 2002.
The hearing was paused after opening statements to let lawmakers attending Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress and is expected to resume this afternoon.
• Jacqueline Klimas can be reached at jklimas@washingtontimes.com.
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