Graham: Obama’s ‘Weak’ Troop Deployment Will Not Change Conditions on the Ground

Friday on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” while discussing the news that President Barack Obama is sending 50 special operations forces to go into Syria and advise a rebel group to fight against the Islamic State, Republican presidential candidate Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) declared the move to be ineffective and demonstrates a show of weakness.

Graham said, “Well, number one you need a no-fly zone inside of Syria for the refugee problem so people don’t have to flee their country. And you need a place where you can train soldiers, a no-fly zone allows you to do that with safety and security. This is in my view, an incremental change so it will not change the conditions on the ground. In the eyes of the enemy, this is weakness. In the eyes of our allies, this is unreliability. ISIS is not going to be intimidated by this move. You know, they are all in for their agenda, the caliphate and their view of the world. President Obama is not all in when it comes to degrading and destroying ISIS. This just reinforces that. ”

He continued, “ISIS is going to hit us if we don’t hit them first. Look at what they’re doing to the region. We are Americans. We are the good guys. We have to balance, you know, our character against our national security needs. It’s not in our national security interests to allow Syria to continue to fall apart. It affects our friends in Jordan. We don’t want to lose the King of Jordan to a radical Islamic group. We don’t want Lebanon to be overrun so the Syrian refugee problem affects our allies. It is a safe haven for ISIS. They want three things. They want to purify their faith. They are destroying their Christian religion also. they want to destroy Israel and hit us.”