The United States has been making the same mistake since the day after the 9/11 attacks in thinking it can easily defeat terror organizations like ISIS or al-Qaida, and the fight for control will continue to be a "long generational" battle, Rep. Adam Kinzinger said Wednesday.
"I think many in Washington have tried to convince, probably for political reasons, convince the American people that we can win this in a short amount of time, whether it's al-Qaida, ISIS, or the war in Afghanistan," the Illinois Republican, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told Fox News' "America's Newsroom." "The reality is, we are fighting an ideology."
It took decades to wrap up the Cold War, he said, and that will be the same kind of timeline that will be necessary to fight the war on terrorism.
There have been some gains in the fight against ISIS, Kinzinger acknowledged, but the organization isn't "just a caliphate, it's a mind-set. That can't be defeated in the military. It has to be defeated over time."
And even with the gains, "there are moments where they will get a little stronger and get a little weaker, but we have to prosecute them over there," said Kinzinger. "You may not be interested but war is very interested in you."
Meanwhile, Kinzinger said it is a "1,000%" chance that Iran was behind the shooting down of a U.S. drone over Yemen.
On Tuesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the ISIS caliphate is gone, but acknowledged there are still places in the Middle East where it is "more powerful today than they were three or four years ago."