Former Secretary of State James Baker sees one major flaw in President Barack Obama's plan to defeat the Islamic State (ISIS): He's not quite sure where the "partners on ground" are coming from.
"It's the president's plan, so it better be the right plan," Baker told NBC "Meet the Press" host Chuck Todd Sunday. "It's got some problems with it. The biggest of course, is who are our 'partners on the ground' that the president referred to in his speech?"
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Back in 1991, when Baker was serving under President George H.W. Bush, he was one of the architects for a coalition to take on Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and liberate Kuwait.
He told Todd that the United States sent 500,000 troops for Operations Desert Storm, with thousands of troops in other countries.
"There wasn't any question about our resolve on the part of those people who were trying to bring into the coalition," said Baker, who also served as chief of staff and Treasury secretary under the late former President Ronald Reagan and as Bush's chief of staff toward the end of his term in office.
Baker told Todd he was in the Marine Corps but he's not a military expert. Still, he believes, like many other lawmakers and military leaders, that "you've got to have some people on the ground" when it comes to fighting ISIS.
"You can't do this just with air power," he said. "We have to have special OPs, or people who can advise this ground force who can collect intelligence, who can guide air strikes."
Further, he said, "we have to have some people to take the territory" after the air strikes are conducted.
But Baker insisted that he is not suggesting that the United States become tied up in an other ground war in the Middle East.
"I'm just saying, we cannot do this without having some forces on the ground that can help our air campaign," said Baker. "You have to have that. I'm afraid to say what I think it's going to be. It's going to be U.S. special OPs forces and people like that on the ground. Because we don't have any other forces being offered to us."
Currently, there is controversy over whether Iran should be included in the coalition to fight ISIS, where back in Baker's day, there were doubts about Syria being included in the fight against Iraq.
Syria not only joined the coalition, but sent troops, said Baker, but he said if he were secretary of state now, he would not fight to include Iran in the battle against ISIS.
"We've got to prove that we're not jumping in on the side of the Shia, between them and the Sunni," said Baker. "We need to bring — we need Sunni support. If we bring Iran in at this point, we will lose that Sunni support."
Meanwhile, in the long-term, a conference is needed to deal with such sectarian conflicts, which "foment terrorism," said Baker.
Baker said he is often asked why the United States did not take out Hussein back in the 1990s, and "now people see why we didn't ... there would be ethnic divisions and the country would split apart."
But Baker said there can be many things argued about the past, but "the problem is, we have a huge issue here. What do we do about it going forward?"
There is no other country in the world that can pull together a coalition to defeat ISIS like the United States can, said Baker, but in his day it was easier to bring that kind of thing together.
"We had a specific goal within a limited time frame, to kick Iraq out of Kuwait," said Baker. "And America was respected by its allies and feared by its enemies. We're not there anymore. "
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