The Washington Free Beacon
October 17, 2014
Republican Joni Ernst, an Iowa Senate candidate and Iraq War veteran, blasted her 
Democratic opponent Rep. Bruce Braley (D., Iowa) on Friday for switching his position on battling Islamic State (IS) terrorists in Iraq and Syria.
Ernst frequently reminds Iowa voters that “my boots were on that ground” when she discusses the U.S.-led coalition to defeat IS. Foreign policy has become an increasingly prominent issue in the closely fought race.
At an event in Cherokee, Iowa, on Friday, Ernst criticized Braley for initially voting in June to restrict any funding for combat operations in Iraq:
“We’re already engaged in military actions with airstrikes. But Congressman Braley is very wishy-washy on this. Just earlier in June as Mosul fell, which is the second-largest city in Iraq, just days after that happened, he voted for no combat action, no funding for combat action, in Iraq, and yet today now he’s saying, ‘I support the president and airstrikes.’ Airstrikes are combat actions, yet he voted not to fund those things.”
“He’s also saying, he just called a couple days ago to bring Congress back into session to talk about this terrible threat of ISIS. Where has he been for the past few months? We have known that ISIS was a threat for years now, and yet he’s very reactive. We’re not sure where he’s going with foreign policy. So there are clear differences between the congressman and myself.”
