Sen. Lindsey Graham:: Not Defeating ISIS 'Will Open the Gates of Hell'

A fired-up Sen. Lindsey Graham warned on Sunday that failure to take on the Islamic State (ISIS) in a tougher way could result in deaths of Americans on U.S. soil.

Graham, appearing on "Fox News Sunday," said America is facing a turning point in the war on terror and that nobody believes America anymore when it commits to military action.

While House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough made the rounds of Sunday morning news shows, reiterating the words of President Barack Obama on Wednesday that American airpower, combined with Syrian rebel and Iraqi ground troops, would combine to defeat ISIS, which he and other government officials refer to by the alternate acronym ISIL.

"At the end of the day, ISIL has to be encouraged by what was just said," Graham told Fox News. America is now fighting a terrorist army, not an organization, he said, and, "It's going to take an army to beat an army."

ISIS has an estimated 30,000 members and controls vast swaths for territory extending from eastern Syria into northern Iraq.

"There is no way in hell you can form an army on the ground to go into Syria to destroy ISIL without a substantial American component," Graham said. He called the idea of never needing American boots on the ground to defeat ISIS a "fantasy."

Obama's speech, on the eve of the 13th anniversary of 9/11, is believed to have been prompted by the videotaped beheadings of two American journalists. ISIS on Saturday released another video of the beheading of British aid worker David Haines.

But Graham said any U.S. military action against ISIS is not simply about bringing a few people to justice who were involved in the beheadings, but protecting millions of people throughout the world from a radical Islamic army.

"They are intending to come here. So I will not let this president suggest to the American people we can outsource our security, and this is not about our safety," Graham said. "This president needs to rise to the occasion before we all get killed back here at home."

ISIS has said it plans to bring the war to the United States and raise the "flag of Allah" over the White House. More than 100 Americans and more than 500 Europeans with western passports are believed to be training with ISIS, adding to fears they could easily return to the United States to commit acts of terror.

"It is our fight. It is not just their fight. This is a radical Islamic army that's pushing the theory of a master religion — not a master race like the Nazis," Graham said. "If they survive our last best shot … then they will open the gates of hell to spill out on the world. This is not a Sunni vs. Sunni problem. This is ISIL vs. mankind."

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