BUSH DEAN: ISIS CAN’T BE DEFEATED WITHOUT GROUND TROOPS

  

A former U.S. ambassador to six Middle Eastern countries told a group art Texas A&M Wednesday night, airstrikes will not be enough to defeat ISIS.

Ryan Crocker dean of the Bush School of Government and Public Service and former ambassador, shared his thoughts on the crisis in the Middle East and the Islamic militant group ISIS during a roundtable discussion Wednesday evening at the Bush Library.

Crocker, former ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, Kuwait, and Lebanon, said ISIS will not be defeated from the air, and that forces will not defeat it without—what he called, “boots on the ground”.

Crocker, who called ISIS "al Qaeda Version 6.0" in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece earlier this month, said there was little to differentiate between the two groups because former al-Qaida members are involved with ISIS. What distinguishes ISIS is that it controls territory.

Noting that "it takes an army to beat an army," Crocker also warned that other nations wouldn't send ground forces to take on ISIS militants unless the U.S. does so first.