Senator John McCain sees a dark parallel between America’s experience in Vietnam and the current American campaign against the Islamic State, warning that the kind of “incremental” strikes against jihadist positions remind him strongly of that failed mission of the 1960s and ’70s.
The Arizona Republican spoke with Fox News’s Neil Cavuto on Monday about the ongoing fight against the radical Islamists in Iraq and Syria. He said the relatively small number of coalition strikes against the Islamic State were inadequate in the face of the thousands-strong jihadist army, which continues to advance on Kurdish-held towns in Syria’s north.
“When you go in incrementally, with incremental increases — my friend, we saw that movie in Vietnam, where we incrementally increased,” McCain said. “And that doesn’t work. You’ve got to strike hard, and you’ve got to strike fast, and you have to do what’s necessary in order to win.”
The senator hinted that what’s “necessary” includes American special forces on the ground, where they will be able to coordinate air strikes on terrorist positions.
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