Democratic Sen. [crscore]Dianne Feinstein[/crscore] disagreed with President Barack Obama’s comments last week that ISIS has been “contained.”
Appearing on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” on Monday, Feinstein called for France to invoke Chapter Five of the NATO charter, saying, “we certainly need more than 50 special ops” on the ground in Syria to defeat ISIS. (RELATED: Obama: ISIS Not Gaining Strength [VIDEO])
Feinstein said, “I have never been more concerned. I read the intelligence faithfully. ISIL is not contained. ISIL is expanding. They just put out a video saying it is their intent to attack this country. And I think we have to be prepared. I think hopefully France will go for a Chapter 5 which will bring NATO into it. Hopefully we will work with our allies to put together the kind of coalitions and attack plans in more than one place at a given time.” (RELATED: Hillary Clinton: ISIS ‘Cannot Be Contained’ [VIDEO])
“There’s only one way we are going to diminish them and that is by taking them out, because they are growing,” insisted Feinstein. “They are in more than a dozen countries now. They are sophisticated. They have apps to communicate on that cannot be pierced even with a court order. So they have a kind of secret way of being able to conduct operations and operational planning. So we should take this very, very seriously.”
Regarding how many ground troops it would take to defeat ISIS, Feinstein said, “I’m not a military expert. I can’t tell you how many troops on the ground we need. But we certainly need more than 50 special ops and we need the ability to really make a difference on the ground.”
“We need to be able to work with Russia and Iran, if they will work with us, in the Syria area,” said Feinstein. “We need to be able to get a political solution to Assad so that all of everyone’s attention can be directed to ISIL.”
Referencing the attacks ISIS has conducting, taking down the Russian passenger plane, the Beirut bombing, and the Paris terrorist attacks, Feinstein said ISIS is “on the march. And it is important to recognize this and prepare to deal with it with action. And candidly, I don’t think bombing runs alone, we have done about 8,000 now, can really make a difference.”
“So we’re going to have to look at some new teams — new themes and I think we will have to listen very carefully to our military people and ask for the kind of precise military strategy and tactics that might be able to really contain ISIL and defeat it.”