Iraq

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Members of the protest group Code Pink hold anti-war signs as Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey testify concerning the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C., Tuesday, September 16, 2014. (Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)

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Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, right, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey, left, testify concerning the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C., Tuesday, September 16, 2014. (Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)

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Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, right, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey, left, testify concerning the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C., Tuesday, September 16, 2014. (Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)

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Members of the protest group Code Pink hold anti-war signs as Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey testify concerning the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C., Tuesday, September 16, 2014. (Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)

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Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, right, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey, left, testify concerning the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C., Tuesday, September 16, 2014. (Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)

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Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, right, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey, left, testify concerning the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C., Tuesday, September 16, 2014. (Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)

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A member of Code Pink interrupts Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel as he testifies along with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey concerning the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C., Tuesday, September 16, 2014. (Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)

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Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, pictured, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey testify concerning the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C., Tuesday, September 16, 2014. (Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)

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Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey arrive to testify concerning the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C., Tuesday, September 16, 2014. (Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)

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Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey arrive to testify concerning the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C., Tuesday, September 16, 2014. (Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)

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Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, left, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey testify concerning the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C., Tuesday, September 16, 2014. (Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)

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Gen. Ray Odierno, Commanding General, Multi-National Forces-Iraq, and U.S. Army Lt. Col. Joseph McGee, Commander of 2-327 Infantry Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, walk through the streets of Samarra to visit the locals, on Oct. 29, 2008. (U.S. Army) ** FILE **

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President Obama said Wednesday he had authorized U.S. airstrikes inside Syria for the first time, along with expanded strikes in Iraq, as part of "a steady, relentless effort" to root out Islamic State extremists. (AP Photo/Saul Loeb, Pool)

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A woman kisses her son outside the Mar Tshmony church in Erbil, Iraq, where 500 Christian families took refuge after an ISIS advance into Kurdish territory, mainly Qaraqosh, the “Christian capital of Iraq.” (Photo by Vianney Le Caer / Pacific Press/Sipa USA)

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In this image made through a window of the Oval Office, President Obama speaks on the phone to Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah from his desk at the White House ahead of his address to the nation tonight regarding Iraq and Islamic State group militants. (Associated Press)

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In this image made through a window of the Oval Office, President Barack Obama speaks on the phone to Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah from his desk at the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2014, ahead of his address to the nation tonight regarding Iraq and Islamic State group militants. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

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FILE - In this Thursday, Nov. 30, 2006 file photo, U.S. President George W. Bush speaks during a joint press conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Amman, Jordan. Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, says the Islamic State group's ascension in Iraq could have been prevented if the U.S. had insisted on a nonsectarian Iraqi government, rather than the one led by the recently replaced al-Maliki that favored Shiite Muslims over the Sunnis. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

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FILE - In this Aug. 28, 2014 file photo, President Barack Obama speaks in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, before convening a meeting with his national security team on the militant threat in Syria and Iraq. The U.S. and its allies are trying to hammer out a coalition to push back the Islamic State group in Iraq. But any serious attempt to destroy the militants or even seriously degrade their capabilities means targeting their infrastructure in Syria. That, however, is far more complicated. If it launches airstrikes against the group in Syria, the U.S. runs the risk of unintentionally strengthening the hand of President Bashar Assad, whose removal the West has actively sought the past three years. Uprooting the Islamic State, which has seized swaths of territory in both Syria and Iraq, would potentially open the way for the Syrian army to fill the vacuum. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)