Santorum calls for boots on ground to defeat ISIS

Rick Santorum speaks at the 2015 Conservative Political Action Conference. (Nicholas Kamm, AFP/Getty Images)

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Rick Santorum railed on the “Obama-Clinton” foreign policy and called for 10,000 troops on the ground to battle the Islamic State.

The former Pennsylvania senator, who won 11 states during the 2012 GOP primaries, criticized President Obama for misjudging the threat from ISIS and damaging relations with allies around the world.

“Commander in chief is not an entry level position and the Oval Office is no place for on the job training,” said Santorum, who is considering seeking the White House again.

Santorum said a two-prong strategy needs to be in place to crush the group known as ISIS. He called for U.S. troops that would assist with training and intelligence, and help coordinate airstrikes. Santorum derided the U.S.-led airstrikes ordered by Obama in Iraq and Syria as a “public relations stunt.”

“We have gone from a policy of peace through strength to a policy of leading from behind,” he said, blaming both Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, the former secretary of State and a likely Democratic presidential candidate.

Regarding Obama, Santorum joked that the president’s popularity is “so bad around the world that I heard a source that the Kenyan government is actually developing proof that Barack Obama was born in America.”

Santorum, who runs a Christian movie studio in the Dallas area, keeps his hand in politics through his Patriot Voices organization.