国际英语新闻:Concerns Raised by Obama's Vow Not to Change IS Strategy

ANTALYA, TURKEY —President Barack Obama says it would be a mistake to deploy ground forces to defeat Islamic State militants, resisting calls at home and abroad for a more forceful U.S. strategy in the wake of Friday’s terrorist attacks in Paris.

Capping the two-day G-20 summit in this Mediterranean resort, the U.S. leader held a news conference at which he called the Islamic State terrorist group “the face of evil,” and said there would be an intensification of efforts but not a new strategy. 

Obama said the Paris attacks were a "terrible and sickening setback" in the fight against IS, but he ruled out deploying large numbers of U.S. ground troops.

“It is not just my view but the view of my closest military and civilian advisers that that would be a mistake.”

Obama indicated he wants to avoid a repeat of the U.S.-led war in Iraq. “Not because our military could not march into Mosul or Raqqa or Ramadi and temporarily clear out ISIL, but because we would see a repetition of what we have seen before,” he said.

*Watch Obama's press conference at G-20

IS is 'Not Contained'

But Senator Dianne Feinstein, a member of the president’s own party, expressed grave concerns on U.S. television Monday about the current strategy in Iraq.

“I have never been more concerned. I read the intelligence faithfully. ISIL is not contained. ISIL is expanding. They've just put out a video saying it is their intent to attack this country.”

Feinstein said it is clear that limited airstrikes and support for Iraqi forces are not “sufficient to protect our country and our allies.”

She said she hopes France will pursue an Article 5 and bring in NATO. Article 5 is the part of the NATO treaty that says an armed attack on one member state is an armed attack on all. 

“There's only one way we are going to diminish them and that is by taking them out, because they are growing. They are in more than a dozen countries now.”

Republicans in Congress have been urging for some time a bigger pushback against IS, but Feinstein is a Democrat, and as vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, she is a leading voice on foreign affairs.