Speaker John Boehner said Sunday morning President Obama may have no choice but to put American troops on the ground in Iraq and Syria in order to ultimately destroy ISIS.
Boehner discussed the situation with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on “This Week.”
“If the goal is to destroy ISIS as a whole, I don’t think the strategy that he outlined will accomplish that… At the end of the day, I think it’s gonna take more than airstrikes to drive them out of there,” the Speaker said. “At some point somebody’s boots have to be on the ground.”
“American?” Stephanopoulos asked.
“Listen, the president doesn’t want to do that,” Boehner responded. “If I were the president, I probably wouldn’t have talked about what I wouldn’t do. And maybe we can get enough of these forces trained to get ‘em on the battlefield. But somebody’s boots have to be there.”
“And if no one else will step up,” the ABC host questioned, “you would you recommend putting American boots on the ground?”
“We have no choice,” Boehner said.
“These are barbarians. They intend to kill us. And if we don’t destroy them first, we’re gonna pay the price,” he added.