The Islamic State terrorist group wants nothing more than for the U.S. Armed Forces to destroy it, politicians and pundits say.
Dozens of thought leaders familiar with the terrorist group say that its members yearn for the day that close air support from an A-10 Warthog cuts them in half while coalition soldiers storm Raqqa.
"They are begging for U.S. troops on the ground," former Obama administration official Van Jones said. "That’s what they want."
"The one thing ISIS wants the most: American boots on the ground," CNN anchor Fareed Zakaria said.
"As long as we’re relying on military force, this is the kind of terms [sic] that ISIS wants. This is what strengthens them," Institute for Policy Studies scholar Phyllis Bennis said.
"More war is exactly what ISIS wants," Sen. Angus King (I., Maine) said.
If the Islamic State cannot provoke the U.S. into a conflict that leaves every last one of its terrorist soldiers dead, it at least wants the U.S. to enact new security measures against terrorists posing as refugees from the Middle East and North Africa.
Such a move "might play right into the hands of ISIS," MSNBC anchor Richard Lui said, citing Vox Dot Com.