John McCain warns IS fight headed for 'slow, grinding failure'

April 06, 2016 02:48

Senior Republican lawmaker John McCain warned on Tuesday the US-led coalition is headed for "slow, grinding failure" unless it scales up the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq.

"I bore witness to the failed policy of gradual escalation that ultimately led to our nation's defeat in the Vietnam War," Senator McCain, a Navy veteran who heads the Senate Armed Services Committee and ran against Barack Obama in 2008, wrote in a letter to Defense Secretary Ash Carter.

"This administration's grudging incrementalism in the war against the Islamic State risks another slow, grinding failure for our nation."

McCain said military commanders had told him they have been hamstrung in their pursuit of the IS group.

"They have been reduced from considering what it will take to win to what they will be allowed to do by this administration.... This is unacceptable," McCain said.

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