US House Armed Services Committee chairman Rep. Mac Thornberry asserted that President Obama's request to use force against Daesh militants is an attempt to share the blame if things go wrong, the Washington-based The Hill Newspaper reported on Wednesday.
Speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations, Thornberry said republicans believe Obama seeks sharing blame, adding, he wants to ensure "he and his party are not forced to bear the full weight of the strategic blunder that has come in part from his premature withdrawal from Iraq and the lack of an effective strategy to counter ISIS."
Thornberry added he supported passing an Authorization for using force against Daesh, but he had "qualms" about the president's proposal.
"I worry that we are asking our pilots or our people on the ground to have a lawyer by your side to figure out whether that's enduring or not, or it's offensive or not, or whether it's ground combat or not," he said.
"We are in this kind of ironic situation where many Republicans want to give the president broader authority, many Democrats want to ... constrain him further, and so how is this going to come out? I don't know," Thornberry added.