Iraq Overview

• Former President George W. Bush’s office says he won’t weigh in, telling MailOnline that he has ‘decided not to criticize his successor’
• President says ground forces are off the table but other options will be among what his national security team presents him ‘in the days ahead’
  
• Republicans in Congress insist that waiting shouldn’t be an option: ‘We need to be hitting these columns of terrorists marching on Baghdad with drones now’
  
• A senior Air Force official in Afghanistan said air bases there and across the Middle East expect ‘contingency plans’ in the next 72 hours
• Obama could have airstrikes underway in 24 hours, according to one retired general
• The president is traveling to North Dakota for a Sioux tribal event, and his national security adviser is not with him
  
• His authorization from Congress for military force in Iraq has never expired, so he could legally do it without approval from Capitol Hill
• American surveillance drones have already been flying over Iraq for weeks
  
• Iraqi army units have been overrun by ISIS in Mosul and Tikrit, but gov’t forces have held them in check for now without surrendering Baghdad

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