Pool photo by Dan Himbrechts
In an op-ed published Saturday in the New York Times, Secretary of State John Kerry called ISIS a cancer that must be eliminated and a “unifying threat to a broad array of countries.” “With a united response led by the United States and the broadest possible coalition of nations, the cancer of ISIS will not be allowed to spread to other countries,” Kerry wrote. “The world can confront this scourge, and ultimately defeat it. ISIS is odious, but not omnipotent.” Meanwhile, a companion opinion piece by Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham argued for an immediate military response to ISIS and criticized the president’s “tactical and reactive half-measures” so far. “Continuing to confront ISIS in Iraq, but not in Syria, would be fighting with one hand tied behind our back. We need a military plan to defeat ISIS, wherever it is.”