Boehner: 'It's the President's Responsibility to Wage This Battle'

(CNSNews) - "Hope is not a strategy" for confronting ISIL, House Speaker John Boehner said on Tuesday, as he urged the president to "come up with a real, overarching strategy to defeat the ongoing terrorist threat."

Boehner made it clear that Congress will not produce an Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) for the president:

"We have one commander-in-chief at a time. It's the president's responsibility to wage this battle. And the president, in my view, is not taking this threat as seriously as (he) should," Boehner told a news conference on Capitol Hill.

"When a major city in Iraq, Ramadi, gets overrun by ISIL, and the addministration says, 'Well it's just a temporary setback' -- it's 70 miles from Baghdad. It's time for the president to get serious about this threat to Americans and our allies all around the world."

Boehner urged Obama to withdraw the AUMF he sent to Congress in February and "start over."

"The president's request for an Authorization for Use of Military Force calls for less authority than he has today. I just think, given the fight that we're in, it's irresponsible."

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