Obama faces pressure to deal with Islamic State

The White House is coming under bipartisan pressure to develop a strategy to tackle growing threats from the Islamic State, with Germany and Australia deciding to supply weapons to Iraq's Kurdish fighters against IS forces.

"It shows - I think exemplifies - that foreign policy is in absolute free-fall," Mike Rogers, a Michigan Republican who heads the US House Intelligence Committee, told Fox News on Sunday.

He was referring to President Barack Obama's statement last week that he had no strategy to deal with the IS militants, although his administration said it was working toward one.

In another TV interview on Sunday, Democrat Dianne Feinstein, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Obama is "too cautious" in his approach to combatting the IS group.

The lawmakers' remarks reflected growing concerns about the increasing threats posed by IS militants. The group has in recent weeks been on the move in Iraq, overrunning vast swaths of territory in the country's north in a killing spree.

While Kurdish fighters, backed by US air power, have had some successes against the Islamic radicals, the IS remains unchecked in neighboring Syria, even though Obama has now authorized the use of drones there.

The IS poses a major problem for the United States, which aims to keep terrorism in check a decade after the Sept 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.

The militants' territorial gains have Washington worried that its ultimate nightmare could come true - that the group could carve out a haven in Iraq or Syria and use it as a staging ground for attacks against the United States, much as al-Qaida did in Afghanistan.

In addition, there are growing fears that individuals with US passports could re-enter the country undetected and attack the homeland.

According to Rogers, hundreds of US citizens had received training with the IS at least once, in addition to an estimated 500 British citizens and hundreds more from Canada, whose passports essentially allow them "free travel" to the United States.

Rogers said any attack by the IS on the United States would be a major event, echoing a number of analysts who believe the group would hit the US on a level not seen since the Sept 11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.

Obama will confer with allies in Europe this week in an effort to get them on board with some sort of strategy to thwart the threat posed by the IS.

(China Daily 09/02/2014 page11)