Sen. Ron Johnson believes the United States needs to send ground troops to the Middle East to defeat the Islamic State.
Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican who also chairs the Senate Homeland Security Committee, told Newsmax TV that the recent Texas shooting at an art show exhibiting cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad — an attack the Islamic State has taken credit for, though the gunmen were killed by police before killing anyone — is proof U.S. boots on the ground are needed in the Middle East to defeat the terrorist group.
“As long as al Qaeda isn’t losing, they’re going to be perceived as winning and they’re going to continue to inspire these types of activities, these types of violent events, this type of terrorism in the West and in the United States,” Johnson said.
He continued: “So from my standpoint, we need to be far more committed to the goal that President [Barack] Obama … [will] degrade and ultimately defeat ISIS, the sooner the better.”
However, putting U.S. troops in the Middle East is something Obama has taken completely off the table — a “historic strategic blunder,” Johnson said.
“He took off the table … the very actions … he would probably need to actually defeat ISIS, which would be boots on the ground,” Johnson said. “It was a historic strategic blunder of not leaving a stabilizing force behind in Iraq to provide the stability, to be the glue that held that fragile coalition together that allowed ISIS to rise from the ashes of what was a defeated al Qaeda.”
He continued: “I do not see the commitment. He says the right words. He lays out the right goal. Degrade and defeat. But the problem is this president’s understanding, his interpretation, his definition of defeat is not what normal Americans would view as defeat. Like actually killing them and wiping them off the face of the Earth.”
Johnson admitted sending troops to battle the Islamic State would not be an easy decision, however, “this strategy of peace through withdrawal has been a miserable failure,” he said.
The Homeland Security Committee will hold a hearing Thursday called “Jihad 2.0,” which will “have witnesses talking about how ISIS is using in a … very effective way … social media to recruit and inspire this kind of activity,” Johnson said.
Sunday’s attempted attack was the first such one carried out in the U.S. and claimed to be by the Islamic State.
