Ground Report

On September 30, 2014 Senator John McCain of Arizona issued the following statement on the fight against ISIS terrorists:

“All Arizonans are grateful to the brave men and women of our armed forces who are skillfully and courageously carrying out strikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and the Khorasan Group in Syria, and appreciate the support our partners across the Middle East are providing in this coalition effort.

To be sure, this must be only the beginning of a long and difficult campaign against the world’s most sinister terrorist army. ISIS is now the largest, richest and most dangerous terrorist organization in history with an estimated 31,500 fighters controlling an extremist sanctuary that exceeds the size of Indiana. Thousands of these terrorists hold Western passports and would require only a plane ticket to arrive in America. Some have expressed ambitions to attack the U.S. homeland. There have also been reports that ISIS is looking to exploit critical vulnerabilities such as those on our southern border.

While the Obama Administration has stepped up efforts to degrade ISIS, it must engage in much more than its current counterterrorism efforts to ultimately destroy ISIS. In addition to airstrikes, we will need a limited presence of troops on the ground—not to invade and occupy Syria or Iraq, but to advise local forces, direct air strikes, gather intelligence, and conduct special forces operations. The Administration must also resolve a contradiction in its policy: its desire to deal with ISIS first and the Assad regime later. It must recognize that it is neither effective nor moral to train and equip thousands of Syrians to fight ISIS, but make no commitment to defend them from Assad’s continued air strikes and barrel bombs, which have killed more than 200,000 Syrian civilians.

I will continue to support efforts to defeat our terrorist enemies and urge the Administration to develop a strategy that will ultimately protect our people and our partners, and secure our national interests.”

Source: McCain Report

Note:  It is known that the US helped train many of the ISIS fighters in camps in Jordan for the purposes of fomenting the civil war in Syria. A fact that Senator McCain refuses to admit or assume any responsibility for as one of the leading proponents in the US Senate for arming the Syrian rebel factions (many of whom are directly and indirectly affiliated with terrorist entities)  with weapons and arms – in violation of US  laws (18 U.S. Code § 2339C – Prohibitions against the financing of terrorism). I should add that the FBI and Justice Department refuse to investigate this matter on the grounds that “the US doesn’t fund terrorism”, despite clear and overwhelming evidence to the contrary.