Lindsey Graham: Destroy ISIS or suffer U.S. attack

Destroying the so-called Islamic State is going to require a renewed U.S. ground troop commitment in the Mideast, Republican presidential candidate Lindsey Graham said Wednesday. Anything but the total eradication of the terrorist group could result in attacks in the United States, he added.

 

Following last week’s attacks in Paris, Graham released a plan he said would eliminate ISIS, or ISIL as it’s also referred to, and stop “the rise of radical Islamic extremism.”

 

Describing his plan on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” the senator from South Carolina said Wednesday he’d organize a large regional force in the Mideast to lead the fight against ISIS, and then have Western powers, including the U.S., just support the effort — kind of the opposite of what happened when the U.S. and its allies invaded Iraq and Afghanistan.

 

“Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey would be the center of gravity of this [regional] force,” he said. The regional force would be supported by U.S. ground troops, he said. His plan says to “send a force of 10,000 troops to Iraq to reestablish stability, take back lost territory, and destroy radical extremist groups like ISIL.”

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