{"id":16110,"date":"2015-01-26T17:08:24","date_gmt":"2015-01-26T17:08:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2015\/01\/26\/mccain-more-us-boots-on-ground-in-iraq-syria\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T21:35:37","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T21:35:37","slug":"mccain-more-us-boots-on-ground-in-iraq-syria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/congress\/2015\/01\/26\/mccain-more-us-boots-on-ground-in-iraq-syria\/","title":{"rendered":"McCain: More US Boots on Ground in Iraq, Syria"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2014 A powerful US senator is pushing President Barack Obama to put more American boots on the ground in Iraq and Syria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span>Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., says &#8220;<\/span><span style=\"background: #ffffff;\">it is obvious that President Obama currently has no coherent strategy to achieve his stated goal to &#8216;degrade and ultimately destroy&#8217; [the Islamic State].&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Part of any such plan, McCain said in a statement Monday, should recognize that &#8220;American boots on the ground are necessary to defeat [the group] in Iraq and Syria.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Specifically, McCain wants to embed more US special operations forces as advisers with US allies on the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The hawkish 2008 GOP presidential nominee also wants Obama to adopt an unambiguous stance against Assad&#8217;s rule,<span class=\"rte rte-comment\">&#8220;<\/span> referring to embattled Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">McCain also repeated his support for a no-fly zone to shield civilians, provide cover to US allies fighting Assad and the Islamic State, and &#8220;moving quickly to provide robust support to moderate units of the Free Syrian Army.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b><a href=\"http:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/budget-policy\/congresswatch\/\">For the latest national security news from Capitol Hill, go to CongressWatch<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Until such actions are taken, [Islamic State] will continue to grow and pose an even greater danger to our national security interests,&#8221; said McCain, who issued a very similar call Sunday on &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/face-the-nation\/\" title=\"http:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/face-the-nation\/\">Face the Nation<\/a>.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Obama, during his annual State of the Union address last Tuesday, said &#8220;American leadership \u2013 including our military power \u2013 is stopping [Islamic State&#8217;s] advance.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While<span class=\"rte rte-comment\">ere<\/span> Republicans like McCain are increasingly saying only American military power can beat back the violent Sunni group, Obama touts the coalition he has built, which includes several Arab nations performing actions such as <span class=\"rte rte-comment\">doing things like <\/span>air strikes on IS group targets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Instead of getting dragged into another ground war in the Middle East, we are leading a broad coalition, including Arab nations, to degrade and ultimately destroy this terrorist group,&#8221; Obama said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;We&#8217;re also supporting a moderate opposition in Syria that can help us in this effort, and assisting people everywhere who stand up to the bankrupt ideology of violent extremism,&#8221; he said. &#8220;This effort will take time. It will require focus. But we will succeed.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"background: white;\">email: <\/span><a href=\"mailto:jbennett@defensenews.com\" style=\"background-color: #ffffff;\"><span style=\"background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;\">jbennett@defensenews.com<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;\">Twitter:<\/span><span style=\"color: black; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BennettJohnT\"> @bennettjohnt<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A powerful US senator is pushing President Barack Obama to put more American boots on the ground in Iraq and Syria.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":29453,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":8,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[8,33,19],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1090],"class_list":["post-16110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-congress","category-home","category-pentagon"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"DNXCXJIDBJHRLMT3N2Z7OWMW74","arc_canonical_url":"\/congress\/2015\/01\/26\/mccain-more-us-boots-on-ground-in-iraq-syria\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>McCain: More US Boots on Ground in Iraq, Syria - Defense News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A powerful US senator is pushing President Barack Obama to put more American boots on the ground in Iraq and Syria.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"McCain: More US Boots on Ground in Iraq, Syria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A powerful US senator is pushing President Barack Obama to put more American boots on the ground in Iraq and Syria.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/congress\/2015\/01\/26\/mccain-more-us-boots-on-ground-in-iraq-syria\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Defense News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-01-26T17:08:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-07T21:35:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John T. 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