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IT’S WAR: White House doubles down on anti-ISIS campaign, calling effort a war

Just four days after Obama delivered a forceful pledge to ‘destroy’ ISIS, without actually referring to the effort as a ‘war,’ administration officials upped the tough talk Sunday. They pledged to put troops on the ground, but not necessarily ones from the U.S. It remains a mystery which country will do it.

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Sunday, September 14, 2014, 1:22 PM

POOL/GETTY IMAGESPresident Obama on Wednesday outlined a strategy to take out ISIS, but didn’t refer to the effort once as a ‘war.’

The battle against ISIS is shaping up to be a traditional war, White House advisors said Sunday.

Just days after President Obama delivered a forceful speech about his plans to take on the bloodthirsty jihadist group without referring to the effort as a “war” once, a parade of administration officials promised that the fight against ISIS would be a serious campaign.

“We are at war with Al Qaeda and its affiliates,” Secretary of State John Kerry said on CBS’ “Face the Nation." “And in the same context if you want to use it (that word), yes, we are at war with (ISIS),” added Kerry, who just last week disputed that the U.S. was headed to war and instead said the campaign was simply a “counterterrorism operation.”

ISIS fighters take part in a military parade along the streets of Syria's northern Raqqa province.

White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, meanwhile, said the U.S. will “need ground troops” for the fight, but wouldn’t commit to placing American boots on the ground.

“We need ground troops,” he said.

Secretary of State John Kerry has been on a week-long trip through the Middle East attempting to convince regional powers to join the President Obama’s coalition to take out ISIS.

POOL/REUTERSSecretary of State John Kerry has been on a week-long trip through the Middle East attempting to convince regional powers to join the President Obama’s coalition to take out ISIS.

But when asked if he could “pledge for sure there will never be American combat troops on the ground in Syria” on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” McDonough couldn’t commit to an absolute answer.

“We want this program to train the opposition,” he said, referring to a proposed program that would help prepare a vetted Syrian opposition army. “We want to make sure that this coalition bring Sunnis to the fight.”

David Cawthorne Haines was beheaded by ISIS in a video released Saturday, the third such brutality in recent weeks.

McDonough, however, wouldn’t elaborate on what countries might be willing to send combat troops to the region.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, responding to yet another brutal beheading by ISIS — this time of British citizen David Haines — said the West must “confront the menace” but he, too, wouldn’t commit to “British combat troops on the ground.”

JOHN STILLWELL/EPABritish Prime Minister David Cameron vowed to ‘hunt down those responsible’ for the beheading of a British aid worker.

The ongoing mystery of who might send soldiers to the volatile region resulted in mounting criticism of the Obama administration, as a growing number of GOP voices publicly questioned the President’s plan.

“It’s delusional in the way they approach this,” South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said on “Fox News Sunday.” “There is no way in hell you can form an army on the ground to go into Syria to destroy (ISIS) without a substantial American component.”

“This President needs to rise to the occasion before we all get killed back here at home. This is not a Sunni vs. Sunni problem this is [ISIS] vs. mankind,” he added.

The chorus of remarks comes just four days after Obama