Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, left, and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey arrive on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Nov. 13, 2014, to testify before the House Armed Services Committee hearing on the Islamic State group. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Several members of the House Armed Services Committee on Thursday skipped out early from a hearing on the U.S.' war against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, a terrorist organization that has overrun large portions of the Middle East, butchering everything in its way.
This was no minor congressional hearing involving witnesses from various and obscure think tanks. Both Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made appearances to testify on U.S. military action against the Islamic State, but even that was apparently not enough to keep committee members interested enough to stick around long for the full three hours.
The hearing, which started at around 10 a.m., saw many of its members present for the opening remarks.
But as time passed, more and more committee members started to slip away.
Here’s what the chamber looked like after roughly 60 minutes of discussion:
At around the two-hour mark, all bets were off: House members started to slip away…
and then:
And near the end:
On the same day that several U.S. House members couldn’t be bothered to stick around for a full hearing with both the U.S. defense secretary and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Islamic State leaders announced that they had struck an alliance with al Qaeda’s Syria affiliate, the Nusra Front.
“Militant leaders from the Islamic State group and [al Qaeda] gathered at a farm house in northern Syria last week and agreed on a plan to stop fighting each other and work together against their opponents,” the Associated Press reported.
“Such an accord could present new difficulties for Washington's strategy against the [Islamic State] group. While warplanes from a U.S.-led coalition strike militants from the air, the Obama administration has counted on arming 'moderate' rebel factions to push them back on the ground. Those rebels, already considered relatively weak and disorganized, would face far stronger opposition if the two heavy-hitting militant groups now are working together,” the report added.
The accord comes after the Islamic State has dedicated most of its time to running roughshod over eastern Syria and northern Iraq, slaughtering thousands and annihilating entire villages.