WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, R-Miss., a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, today questioned Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and General Martin Dempsey during a committee hearing to examine President Obama’s strategy to deal with the Islamic State.

“The surge in Iraq ordered by President Bush worked,” Wicker told the officials. “But President Obama rejected the advice of many of his top military leaders to leave a residual force. Our Administration did not make every effort that it possibly could to gain a status of forces agreement in Iraq, and so we completely withdrew. Now, the Islamic State is controlling large parts of the territory and wreaking the havoc that the President is responding to.”

“I am willing to help the President take this hill again if I believe there is a plan that will work and be successful,” Wicker continued. “We must also have some assurance that we will not throw away our gains this time as we did after the surge worked.”