Sen. James Lankford: ISIS Attacks Are Strategy, Not 'Setback'

(Fox News/"Happening Now")

By Sandy Fitzgerald | Monday, 16 November 2015 12:27 PM EST

This weekend's attacks in Paris were not a "setback," as President Barack Obama called them in his speech at the G20 summit in Turkey Monday, but were part of an "ongoing strategy from ISIS," Sen. James Lankford, the only senator on both the Homeland Security and Intelligence Committees, commented after Obama's talks.

"This is what they've done in Libya, Afghanistan, this is what they've done in Egypt, in numerous villages in Syria and Iraq," Lankford told the "Happening Now" program on Fox News.

"They mean to hold territory, and they mean to continue to expand . . . The challenge is, what's our strategy to respond?"

On Friday, Obama said in a television interview hours before the attacks that ISIS is "contained," but Lankford said it's obvious the militants are not.

"The challenge I had when I first heard that comment was it seems odd to say they're contained even within Iraq and Syria, as they continue to move at will around that region," said Lankford.

He also criticized Obama's plan as being "just to strike" ISIS and limit the fighters, but not to get rid of them.

"The number of fighters that are ISIS fighters wouldn't fill up most American football stadiums," said Lankford. "This is not a large group of individuals, but they're tenacious, and they rule with absolute terror."

To find the fighters and eradicate them, though, the United States must increase its intelligence operations on the ground in Syria and Iraq, said Lankford. The problem is, the U.S. military in Iraq are there to train and equip, rather than advise, he continued.

"And just 30 miles away from Baghdad, ISIS continues to build strength, and we're not strongly opposing them other than with air power," said Lankford. "We have got to get people engaged in that to help those Iraqi soldiers to get there and know what to do when they actually arrive. They need our expertise."

And meanwhile, said Lankford, "the entire world is waiting on America to develop a clear strategy so they can follow it . . . When America sets a strategy, the rest of the world follows."

The problem is, while Obama says he has a strategy, "I've yet to hear anyone articulate what that is," said Lankford. "His strategy is containment. His strategy is to keep ISIS from expanding. The problem is, tell that to the folks in Libya where they see multiple people beheaded and ISIS is on the move in Libya, the folks in Paris or Tunisia or in Egypt or Afghanistan or Pakistan."

The reach has even come to the United States, he continued, where individuals from Syria reached out to a sympathizer in Arizona and encouraged the attempted attacks on a convention in Garland, Texas, he pointed out.

"They didn't make it out of their car, basically, because we caught them, or else we would have had the same type of situation in the United States," said Lankford.