Rubio: Boots on Ground May Be Required

Rubio: Boots on Ground May Be Required

On Thursday’s “New Day” on CNN, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) reacted to President Barack Obama’s Wednesday night address to the nation laying out his policy on the ISIS threat in the Middle East.

Rubio said he believed Obama had the authority to act, but encouraged him to seek out congressional authorization.

However, the junior Florida senator said achieving the objective may require more than what Obama had proposed, including ground troops.

“I hope it does not, but it very may well require as some point the engagement of, at a minimum, special operations forces and potentially ground troops,” Rubio said. “But I don’t think that’s something we need to do right way. I think the the ideal outcome would be that on the ground it would be local forces that do the work. But we need to be honest with the American people — it could require that and the choice there is not whether we want to go to war or not. The choice is whether we want to accept ISIL as a permanent fixture or not.”

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor

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