House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) said he would call Congress back into session to vote on authorization for action against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS or ISIL) if President Barack Obama were to put forward a resolution.
"The president typically in a situation like this would call for an authorization vote and go sell that to the American people and send a resolution to the Hill. The president has not done that. He believes he has authority under existing resolutions to do what he's done."
"I think he does have the authority to do it," Boehner added. "But the point I'm making is this is a proposal that the Congress ought to consider."
Boehner’s comments came during an appearance on ABC’s "This Week."
There have been public calls for Congress to vote on an authorization for the airstrikes, but most lawmakers contend the president has the authority to act on his own.
Boehner echoed that sentiment and while he expressed support for the airstrikes and the president’s authority to carry them out, he was also critical of the strategy, arguing U.S. ground troops should remain an option.
"If the goal is to destroy ISIS, as the president says it is, I don't believe the strategy that he outlined will accomplish that. … At the end of the day, I think it's going to take more than airstrikes to drive them outta there. At some point somebody's boots have to be on the ground."
Someone’s boots must be on the ground, Boehner said, and it’s possible to train enough local forces to adequately take on that role. When asked if he would recommend putting American boots on the ground if "no one else will step up," Boehner definitively said yes.
"We have no choice. These are barbarians. They intend to kill us. And if we don't destroy them first, we're gonna pay the price."
The administration has continuously dismissed the possibility of boots on the ground and Deputy National Security Adviser Tony Blinken reiterated that during his Sunday shows appearances.
"We’ve been very clear that there will not be a U.S. ground invasion of Iraq or Syria. This has to be local forces stepping up and fighting for their own country," Blinken told CBS’s "Face the Nation."
"We’re not going to repeat what we did before," Blinken said. "Hundreds of thousands of Americans on the ground in the Middle East getting bogged down, that’s exactly what al Qaeda wants. That’s not what we’re going to do."
Over fifty countries have joined the U.S.-led coalition to fight ISIS, but the majority of Americans don’t seem to believe "boots on the ground" is out of the question.
According to a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, 72 percent of Americans think U.S. combat troops will be used.