Defense News reports that “as US President Obama prepares to meet with his national security team this evening to examine potential responses to the continuing violence in Iraq, there remains no consensus in Washington about how to react to the stunning events that have taken place in Iraq over the past week.”  

“But an influential group of House and Senate Republicans are calling for US military action sooner rather than later to stem the tide of Sunni extremism in parts of Iraq.”  

“With at least two Iraqi Army divisions having simply melted away in the face of several thousand members of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) and a collection of local Iraqi Sunni tribe members who took the cities of Mosul, Tikrit and Tal Afar, there is increasing talk of Washington and Tehran working together to assist the government in Baghdad.”  

“Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain on Monday blasted the idea of working with Iran, releasing a statement calling it ‘the height of folly.’”