Washington, February 3 (RHC)-- Senior U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham says 10,000 American "boots on the ground" are required in Syria to stop the ISIL terrorist group from “launching an attack” on the United States.

"An aerial campaign will not destroy ISIL; you're going to need boots on the ground, not only in Iraq, but Syria,” Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, said in an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation. “And there's got to be some regional force formed with an American component somewhere around 10,000 American soldiers to ally with Arab armies in the region and go into Syria and take back territory from ISIL. That's what will make it stop," Graham said.

Graham, a possible presidential candidate for 2016, claimed the U.S. is being “overwhelmed” by ISIL terrorists, who have the “best platform to launch an attack on the United States I've seen since 9/11.” The senator expressed concern about the flow of “foreign fighters” to the United States and Europe. “You'll see Paris on steroids here pretty soon if you don't disrupt this organization and take the fight to them on the ground," he added.

The ISIL terrorists, who were initially trained by the CIA in Jordan in 2012 to destabilize the Syrian government, are engaged in crimes against humanity in the areas under their control. They have been carrying out horrific acts of violence such as public decapitations and crucifixions against all communities, including Shias, Sunnis, Kurds, and Christians.

Many political observers say that sending ground troops to Iraq and Syria could prove a liability in the 2016 presidential election in the U.S. According to a Pew poll released in October, 55 percent of respondents from both Republican and Democratic parties opposed sending in ground troops to battle ISIL.