Graham: ISIL America's fight; administration 'delusional'

Sen. Lindsey Graham offered a scathing assessment on Sunday of the way the Obama administration has handled the Islamic State of Iraq an the Levant ascendant in the Middle East.

In an interview on "Fox News Sunday," he said the administration’s approach to destroying the ISIL, with a focus on airstrikes and opposition to American ground troops in the Middle East, is “delusional.”

“It is our fight,” the South Carolina Republican said. “It’s not just their fight. This is a radical Islamic army that’s pushing a theory of a master religion—not a master race like the Nazis—this is not about bringing a few people to justice who behead the innocent in a brutal fashion. This is about protecting” millions around the world “from a radical Islamic army.”



ISIL has claimed responsibility for the beheadings of two American journalists, and on Saturday claimed responsibility for doing the same to a British citizen. And Graham, one of the more hawkish members of the Senate and a vocal critic of the administration’s foreign policy, warned that this is not a problem relegated to the Middle East.

“They’re intending to come here,” Graham said.

Calling this a “turning point in the war on terror,” he said Obama needs to “rise to the occasion before we all get killed back here at home.”

“There is no way in hell you can form an army on the ground…to destroy ISIL without a substantial American component,” he said.