The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has conquered a huge chunk of the Middle East — and inflicted brutal sharia law and persecution of Christians — in a short timespan, and the radical Islamists could be capable of striking a more distant target: the U.S.
Two Republican leaders echoed one another during Sunday morning interviews when they claimed that ISIS posed a credible threat to the American homeland.
“These people that are coming to fight on the side of ISIS are returning to their countries in Europe and there’s 100 of them that we are tracking in the United States,” said Sen. John McCain on CNN’s “State of the Union.” ”As I mentioned to you already, one was in Syria, came back to the United States, and then went back to Syria and blew himself up. Mr. Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS, when he left our Camp Bucca, the camp in Iraq, he said, ‘See you in New York.’”
According to McCain, ISIS has the motivation, and is gaining the ability, to attack the U.S.
“If you read what they’re saying, we are the enemy, they want to destroy us,” he said. “They are getting stronger all the time. Their goal, as they have stated time after time, is the destruction of the United States of America.”
At about the same time on “Fox News Sunday,” Sen. Lindsey Graham offered a similar prediction.
“They’re coming here,” he said. “This is not just about Baghdad, not just about Syria. It’s about our homeland. If we get attacked because [Obama] has no strategy to protect us, then he will have committed a blunder for the ages.”