The United States needs to go into Iraq and take decisive action against the militant forces of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) to halt its continued siege of territory, Weekly Standard Editor Bill Kristol told MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
"I think we're capable of stopping ISIS, if we are serious about it," Kristol said Friday. "If you're going to get in, get in big. And get in decisively now."
President Barack Obama announced Thursday the United States would conduct a humanitarian effort in Iraq to provide food and water to religious minorities under siege by militant ISIS forces. Obama also authorized the use of airstrikes against ISIS militants, and the Pentagon announced Friday targeted airstrikes had begun, according to
Fox News.
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The new initiative propels the United States into Iraq after a complete pullout of troops in 2011 following nearly a decade of war. Kristol said the current U.S. presence of 300 advisers sent in June to aid the Iraqi military showed America currently was "not in there in any serious way."
Kristol argued that an incremental buildup of U.S. forces would not "have the affect you want to have on ISIS," adding that approach also would not have beneficial effects of bolstering allies or "have the effect you want to have in the region."
Kristol warned against viewing the invincibility of ISIS militants, saying he wouldn't make them "10 feet tall." He maintained the ISIS threat "can be stopped."
"If we intervened a little bit with some air power, and a few advisers on the ground — we're not dealing with the Soviet army here," he said.
Military involvement in Iraq is important because of the threat ISIS poses to the United States, Kristol said.
"It is a strategic threat to the United States for them to control that territory," he said. "For two months, serious people in Washington have been saying ISIS is a serious threat."
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