WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker John Boehner (BAY’-nur) says President Barack Obama “has finally begun to make the case the nation has needed him to make for quite some time.” But the Ohio Republican also says that Obama’s acknowledgment of the “grave and growing threat” Islamic extremists pose has come far too late.

In addition to Obama’s authorizing airstrikes inside Syria and expanded strikes in Iraq, he’s also asking Congress to authorize the training and arming of the moderate Syrian opposition.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says, “the president laid out a strong and decisive strategy to destroy ISIS without repeating the mistakes of the past in the Middle East.”

But fellow Democratic Sen. Sen. Mark Udall says, “The American people must be assured that we are not pursuing another open-ended conflict in the Middle East, and I will not give this president — or any other president — a blank check to begin another land war in Iraq.”

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