GOP lawmaker: US should trumpet ISIS body count

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) says the administration should publicize the deaths of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) forces in order to deter potential followers from joining the terror group.

“Ten thousand people are dead. If you join ISIS, there’s a great chance you will die, too, and show the living conditions of ISIS soldiers. Not just a bunch of guys running around with AK-47s, having a good time pillaging towns,” Kinzinger, a former Air Force pilot, said in an interview Wednesday night with Fox News’s “On The Record.” 

“It’s actually a very devastating way to live. I think we have to show that more,” he added. “This, to me, does not say we are winning the fight. This says we are killing some people.”

On Wednesday, Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a French radio station that the now 9-month-old coalition campaign against ISIS has killed more than 10,000 fighters since August.

“Indeed, when you act against a force like Daesh, which is a terrorist force with a totalitarian ideology, and that does not fear death, we recorded an enormous loss for Daesh. More than 10,000 since this campaign started. And this will eventually have an effect,” he claimed, using the Arab term for the terror group.

In March, Gen. Lloyd Austin, the U.S. Central Command chief, told the House Armed Services Committee that the U.S.-led campaign had killed 8,500 ISIS fighters.

Kinzinger guessed the latest figure was an “estimate,” since the U.S. doesn’t have personnel on the ground performing assessments after every airstrike.

“It’s a guess, but, again, I think it’s got to be somewhat close to that. I do commend the [Defense Department] for saying the body count number because, again, we have to send the message to those that are thinking about going to Turkey and going into Syria and radicalizing and fighting for ISIS that is, ‘This is not just a good time at summer camp,’ ” he said. 

At the same time, Kinzinger warned, the U.S. shouldn’t get hung up on death toll figures, as the country did during the Vietnam War.

“We don’t want to get in the trap of judging success like we did in Vietnam by body counts, because we saw there, obviously, that doesn’t work,” he said. 

He also called on President Obama to give an Oval Office address to update the country on the fight against ISIS. 

“Talk about what’s happening and talk about how we are going to win this war against ISIS. To this point he has not done that, and people don’t feel he really has a grasp on this,” Kinzinger suggested.