Graham: French airstrikes not enough

Republican presidential candidate Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Monday called for a more robust military response from the U.S. and France after the deadly terrorist attacks in Paris.

{mosads}”To the French president, my heart breaks for you and your country. You declared war on ISIL, you did the right thing,” Graham said on CNN’s “New Day,” using an alternate acronym for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

However, Graham said it was “not an adequate response” for France to use 10 planes to drop 20 bombs on targets in Raqqa, Syria, as it did on Sunday.

Graham called on President Obama and French President François Hollande to “rally the entire region — they’re there to be rallied — to go in on the ground and destroy ISIL.”

“In World War II we went into Tokyo, we went into Berlin. We should go as an international force, led by the region, the Arabs and Turkey, to destroy ISIL on the ground in Raqqa,” he said.

Graham has long called for upwards of 10,000 U.S. troops on the ground in Syria and Iraq as part of a much larger regional force to combat ISIS. He has renewed those calls after last week’s attacks in Paris that left 129 dead and scores more injured in attacks attributed to ISIS.

“If we don’t change our strategy and come up with a ground component, there will be another 9/11,” Graham said Monday.

Graham and ally Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) echoed the call for boots on the ground in another interview early Monday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

–This report was updated at 7:47 a.m.