Sen. John McCain said the United States is losing its battle against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and must expand its campaign against the militant group, but stopped short for calling for U.S. ground troops to become directly involved.
“They’re winning and weren’t not,” the Arizona Republican told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “We’re not degrading and ultimately destroying ISIS.”
“There has to be a re-evaluation and a re-engineering of what we’re doing because it’s not working.”
McCain said the Obama administration’s approach of “pinprick” airstrikes isn’t working and said more ground forces, including local fighters with the support of U.S. special forces, need to be involved in repelling the Islamic State.
The lawmaker also called for the creation of a no-fly zone and a buffer area inside Syria. And he said the U.S. should arm Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and offer more support for Syrian rebels who are fighting both Islamic State militants and forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad.
“This has to be a robust campaign,” he said. “You have to go after ISIS and Bashar Assad at the same time or you will not succeed.”
But the senator said he doesn’t advocate sending U.S. battalions to the region to fight the militants, saying, “we can do a lot more down at the operating level.”
McCain, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that while Islamic State fighters have made significant inroads in the Anbar province near Bagdad, he doubted the group would capture the Iraqi capital.
But he said it’s possible the Islamic State could take over the city’s airport and infiltrate Bagdad with explosives and suicide bombings.
