Lawmakers: Obama's 'Fiddling While Iraq Burns'

President Barack Obama is being pulled back into Iraq, a battle he's tried to put behind him. Three-hundred U.S. military advisers will soon be on the ground there, hoping to help stop the escalating violence of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

Currently, U.S. aircraft are flying over Iraq 24 hours a day gathering intelligence, while Iraqi soldiers fight the rising insurgency in the embattled nation.

"We will help Iraqis as they take the fight to terrorists who threaten the Iraqi people in the region and American interests as well," the president said.

Less than three years after Obama marked the end of America's war in Iraq, he says he's not sending combat troops. But he did leave the door open for possible airstrikes.

"We will be prepared to take targeted and precise military action," Obama said.

On Capitol Hill, many Republicans are skeptical.

"President Obama has always been a reluctant commander in chief," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., wants airstrikes immediately.

"The president of the United States goes for fundraising and golfing, and now he's fiddling while Iraq burns," McCain said.

Meanwhile, there's growing concern among U.S. officials about Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who has failed to unite his country's religious and ethnic factions.

"Only leaders that can govern with an inclusive agenda are going to be able to truly bring the Iraqi people together," Obama said.

U.S. leaders say that's key to preventing Iraq from being shattered by a sectarian civil war.

The military advisers the president is sending will be embedded with Iraqi troops to train and advise them.

Altogether, the president's actions could put about 600 additional U.S. troops in the middle of Iraq's deadly meltdown.