Sen. John McCain on Sunday blasted President Barack Obama for saying climate change is the biggest threat to the world while members of the Islamic State (ISIS) are killing innocent people and leaving their bodies lying in the street.
McCain, appearing on
"Face the Nation," was referring to Obama's commencement speech last week at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, in which he said, "climate change constitutes a serious threat to global security, an immediate risk to our national security."
Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, McCain also criticized Obama for saying last week that the United States is "not losing" to ISIS in Iraq. The United States was winning in that country, he said, until Obama pulled out all troops in December 2011.
McCain said Obama's tactic of attacking ISIS with air power is ineffective without people on the ground to point out moving targets. Seventy-five percent of the air missions return without firing a weapon because no targets were seen, he said.
"We found in Vietnam if you don't have the right strategy, air power is minimal in its effect," McCain said.
McCain told host Bob Schieffer he called for the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld during the George W. Bush administration when he saw that the United States was losing in Iraq.
"George W. Bush at least had the guts to reverse and sponsor the surge, which … eventually then succeeded," McCain said. "I wish I, I pray, that Barack Obama would do the same thing."
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