Cruz: Dempsey, Hagel Sound Like 'Social Workers'

Cruz: Dempsey, Hagel Sound Like 'Social Workers'

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) accused the Obama administration of trying to be “social workers” in Iraq instead of adequately combating ISIS militarily on Tuesday’s “Hannity” on the Fox News Channel.

“There is no sense of urgency, no sense of seriousness … when I ask Gen. Dempsey, militarily how would we go in and kill the terrorists before they’re able to take jihad to America, his answer was, ‘well, we need to see political reconciliation. We need to change the conditions on the ground so people are not susceptible to extremism.’ Look, it’s not our job to be social workers in Iraq and put them all on expanded Medicaid. It is our job to kill terrorists who have declared war on America and who have demonstrated the intention and capability to murder innocent Americans,” he stated.

Cruz added, “I tried to press them [Defense Secretary Hagel and Gen. Martin Dempsey] hard on the very simple question, if the objective were to destroy ISIS. Not to degrade them, not to limit their ability, but to destroy them within 90 days, what would be militarily necessary to do that? And I’m sorry to say neither gentleman could give an answer to that. Indeed, General Dempsey said ‘the military can’t do that, it’s not a military operation,’ and their focus, sadly seems far more focused on issues of political reconciliations, on side issues. Frankly, their answers were far more those you would expect of a social worker than of military leaders.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett

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