WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s pick to run the Pentagon was grilled Wednesday by Republicans who used his confirmation hearing to criticize White House foreign policy — from battling Islamic State militants to supporting Ukraine to trying to shutter the prison at Guantanamo Bay.
Ashton Carter is on the fast track to being the president’s fourth defense secretary in six years. He endured hours of questioning by members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, now in Republican control.
Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., praised Carter as an honest, hard-working and respected professional. Then he pounced on Obama’s strategy to combat Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq. McCain asked Carter what the administration’s strategy was to confront the Islamic State.
Carter said the goal was to defeat the Islamic State forces in a way that “once they are beaten they stay beaten.” In Iraq, that will be the job of the Iraqi security forces, which Carter said he understood would begin to take back territory in coming months
On Ukraine, McCain asked whether the U.S. should provide defensive arms to Ukraine, which is battling anti-government rebels backed by neighboring Russia. So far the White House has refrained because Obama doesn’t want to start a proxy war with Russia. “I incline in the direction of providing them with arms,” Carter said.
