Rodney Frelinghuysen has a new source of inspiration for dealing with ISIS in Syria. His new guru is one of the neocon cheerleaders who inspired President George Bush to invade Iraq.

Max Boot makes no apology for encouraging Bush to undertake what has turned out to be one of our country’s most significant foreign policy disasters, perhaps the worst.

We’re still paying the price. ISIS arose from the ashes left after our invasion in Iraq. Colin Powell was right. We broke it and now we own it. And now Frelinghuysen wants to do it again. He’s looking to dig the hole deeper. He wants to put American boots on the ground.

In his December 18th newsletter Frelinghuysen quotes Boot for the proposition that air strikes alone won’t defeat ISIS. Boot implies that President Obama sees things otherwise and that he shares his “daydream” with Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Britain and France.

What nonsense! The President has consistently said that ground troops are necessary to defeat ISIS -- but not American troops. American boots on the ground would lead to another debacle to rival the Iraq disaster. And it would play right into the hands of ISIS, who want their war to look like a defense of Islam against a western crusade.

Instead, the President and the administration are doing their best to have Syria’s Muslin neighbors commit ground troops. For reasons stemming from the incredibly complicated political and religious conflicts among Muslims in the Middle East, it’s a slow process. But the President’s task is not made easier by the islamophobia promoted by Trump and other Republicans who seek to be President. Or, for that matter, by constant niggling of war hawks like Frelinghuysen who have no constructive ideas for getting the United States out of the quagmire that they got us into.