Sen. Joe Manchin to Obama: ‘Get Your Intelligence Group Back on Track’ on Iraq

Dem Senator to Obama: ‘Get Your Intelligence Group Back on Track’ on Iraq (National Review Online)

The Obama administration has been caught off guard by the worsening situation in Iraq, and Senator Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.) is pointing to the failures of the president’s intelligence team as the reason.

“First of all, I think our intelligence has failed us miserably for not being unaware and not knowing the threat that we’ve faced and how this can unfold as quickly as it has,” he said on Meet the Press. “My first thing to recommend to the president is to get your intelligence group back on track.”

Manchin opposed putting boots on the ground in Iraq, adding there isn’t an appetite for that approach in Washington. He would be open to air strikes, he said, but it would depend on the intelligence.

“I want to make sure our intel is accurate before we start doing this,” he said.