Pete Hoekstra: 'Solid' Ground Force Needed to Defeat ISIS

While airstrikes have an “impact,” the United States will not defeat the Islamic State (ISIS) without “solid boots on the ground,” says former House Intelligence Chairman Pete Hoekstra, who appeared Tuesday on Newsmax TV's “America’s Forum.”

“You will not be successful until you marry airstrikes along with more effective capabilities on the ground,” said Hoekstra, noting that coalition forces are in a “stalemate” in Kobani and northern Iraq while ISIS is gaining ground in southern Iraq, near Baghdad.

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“Estimates are now that it's controlling 80 percent of al-Anbar province, a key in the largest province in Iraq,” said Hoekstra. “We're not making progress other than if you say moving to a stalemate is progress. We're not rolling them back. You're going to need Special Forces to assist the Iraqis, the Peshmerga, and other fighters to ultimately start driving them back.”

Without ground troops, “you're not going to fundamentally change the dynamics of the conflict. You need boots on the ground to identify targets and to reclaim territory,” he said.

Hoekstra also has concerns about U.S. troops pulling out of Afghanistan, predicting the country will be unable to stave off ISIS and other terror groups.

“You already have an ISIS-type movement with the Taliban and al-Qaida in Afghanistan,” he pointed out. “I don't think that Afghanistan is ready to assume the responsibility for all military operations for security in Afghanistan.

"You're going to see the situation in Afghanistan deteriorate very, very quickly. The Taliban, al-Qaida, radical jihadist movements are going to control more and more of the territory in Afghanistan very, very quickly.”

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