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Sen. Lindsey Graham Says US Army Must Defeat 'Radical Islamic Army' ISIS Before It 'Opens Gates of Hell on the World'

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) speaks to the press following his private meeting with United States U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice about the attack on U.S. diplomats in Benghazi, Libya, on Capitol Hill in Washington, November 27, 2012.
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) speaks to the press following his private meeting with United States U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice about the attack on U.S. diplomats in Benghazi, Libya, on Capitol Hill in Washington, November 27, 2012. | (Photo: Reuters/Jason Reed)

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, said Sunday that it will take an army to beat the "radical Islamic army" of the Islamic State, or ISIS, otherwise the terrorists "will open the gates of hell to spill out on the world." He also suggested ISIS is capable of killing Americans in the United States.

"When the White House tells the world we say what we mean and we do what we say, nobody believes that anymore," Graham said on "

ISIS, also known as ISIL, released a video Saturday showing the beheading of 44-year-old British aid worker, David Haines, the father of two who went to Syria to serve at a refugee camp.

The Sunni terror group previously released two more videos showing the beheadings of U.S. journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and has threatened to kill more Western hostages.

"The first thing I want to tell the American people, from my point of view, it is our fight," Graham continued. "It is not just their fight. This is a radical Islamic army that's pushing the theory of a master religion, not a master race, like the Nazis. This is not about bringing a few people to justice who behead the innocent in a brutal fashion. It's about protecting millions of people throughout the world from a radical Islamic army, they're intending to come here."

Graham added that he doesn't believe in Obama's suggestion to the American people that the nation's security can be outsourced or that "this is not about America's safety."

"There is no way in hell you can form an army on the ground to go into Syria, to destroy ISIL, without a substantial American component," Graham went on to say. "And to destroy ISIL, you have to kill or capture their leaders, take the territory they hold back, cut off their financing and destroy their capability to regenerate. This is a war we're fighting, it is not a counterterrorism operation, this is not Somalia, this is not Yemen; this is a turning point in the war on terror. Our strategy will fail yet again. This president needs to rise to the occasion before we all get killed back here at home."

If the threat is not dealt with, Graham warned, then "they will open the gates of hell to spill out on the world. This is not a Sunni versus Sunni problem, this is ISIL versus mankind."

ISIS, or the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, is an al-Qaeda offshoot, which wants to form an Islamic emirate in the Levant region through "jihad."

According to the CIA, ISIS has about 31,500 fighters across Iraq and Syria.

ISIS men have killed hundreds of civilians in Iraq. Numerous members of the Christian and Yazidi minorities have also been killed, and tens of thousands of them have fled their homes.

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