WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (Mo.), who serves as a member of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee and Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, issued the following statement today regarding the security situation in Iraq:

“Earlier today, Senators were informed of the instant collapse of four of the 17 Iraqi military divisions – without any apparent effort to push back. This is a desperate situation. It’s moving quickly. It appears to me that the chickens are coming home to roost for the president’s policy of not leaving anybody there to be a stabilizing force. Some Iraqi troops have gone to work with their uniforms on with civilian clothes under their uniforms. That’s a bad sign. In the short term, the U.S. must do everything we can to support the Kurdistan Regional Government’s requests for assistance to respond to the growing humanitarian crisis along Kurdistan’s border.”