US Senator Says Washington Strategy Against Growing IS Threat Insufficient

US Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson expressed his incertitude whether the US was sufficient enough in fighting the Islamic State threat.

WASHINGTON, January 30 (Sputnik) — The United States is not doing enough to defeat the growing threat represented by the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group in Iraq and Syria, US Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson told Sputnik.

“I’m concerned that we’re not doing enough,” Johnson told Sputnik, following a classified briefing from US Pentagon officials on Thursday. “Obviously it’s an enormous threat, a growing threat.”

Johnson, a Republican from Wisconsin, stated that he agrees in general with the strategy US President Barack Obama put forward to degrade and ultimately defeat IS, but he questions the effectiveness of the pace of US operations.

“We have got to defeat sooner that it appears we’re on track to do,” Johnson told Sputnik. He would not state whether more US forces were needed to achieve that end.

Members of the Senate received classified testimony from numerous Pentagon officials on Thursday, as well as from General John Allen, the presidential appointment to lead the global coalition against IS.

The United States has been engaged in military action against IS since August 2014. The group has seized substantial territory in Syria and Iraq, though recent operations by Kurdish forces and anti-IS allies were successful in retaking territory in Kobani, Syria.