Rep. Randy Forbes: America Needs a Better Strategy for Defeating ISIS
ISIS is succeeding in inspiring deadly attacks because the U.S. has not pursued an effective strategy to destroy the terrorist group, Rep. Randy Forbes told CBN News.
The Virginia congressman visited the CBN News studios one day after an ISIS-inspired terrorist killed 49 people at gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.
Omar Mateen, 29, and a U.S. citizen of Afghan heritage, pledged allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakar al-Baghdadi in a phone call to 911 during the attack. ISIS has since taken credit for the attack.
"As long as ISIS is flourishing we're going to see these kind of actions continuing, not just in the United States, but around the world," Forbes said.
As a member of the House Armed Services Committee, Forbes said he's heard testimony that ISIS was defeated in 2009. He criticized the Obama administration for pursuing a flawed strategy that has allowed ISIS to come back from near extinction.
"This concept of ignoring them, acting like they're non-existing, having the political correctness to not even use the term 'war on terrorism' has led to a strategy that hasn't worked," he said. "Political correctness just has no part when it's looking at national security and the protection of innocent Americans."
Forbes said the administration's failed policies have allowed ISIS to flourish to the point where it can plot and carry out attacks in other countries and inspire lone wolf attackers to take independent action. Defeating ISIS on the ground is key to ending the terror attacks.
"Because, what we see is as long as we allow ISIS to flourish and grow, they get the money to do more training, more propaganda, people look at them and they're inspired by their success. If you see them being defeated and going down, it takes a lot of that inspiration away," he said.
Forbes advocates a multi-faceted attack against ISIS.
"One of the major places that I've been pushing for is taking away their funding. If you take away the funding from terrorist orgs, it's like pulling the oxygen out of a room, they shrivel up and die." he said.
The congressman also called on churches to take part in protecting America.
"One, we have to go back to Chronicles, where we are told that we can always pray. We need to be praying that God will heal our land. I believe He will. The second thing is, the church has to begin standing up and to begin to say, 'He,y how do we actually take an active role in making sure we're defending and protecting the United States of America?' I think if we do that, we can turn this thing around."
