GOP stance on military force at center of 2016 debate

The Republican party is rushing to stake a claim to having a superior foreign policy ahead of 2016's presidential election. For some in the GOP, that means taking a strong interventionist stance.

"There is no doubt in my mind militarily that we cannot succeed in our endeavors to degrade and destroy ISIL without having an American component," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, said Sunday in an interview with ABC, referring to an alternate acronym for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. "The regional forces in the Mideast do not have the capacity, in my view, to do the job without some American help."

The hardline military position is in line with the former Air Force officer's hawkish conservative credentials. But it's not clear that the Republican party is ready to unify behind Graham's war drums.

In fact, it may already be splintering along military lines.

"We have to be engaged. And that doesn't necessarily mean boots on the ground in every occurrence," former Florida Governor Jeb Bush recently said in Detroit.

Though Bush promises to be his "own man" on foreign policy, his newly amassed team of advisers might prove to be his undoing. Among them are veteran policy-makers that featured prominently in the administrations of both his brother and father.

And that's been enough to spur criticism of the former Florida governor, who leads the GOP's crowded 2016 candidate pool according to a recent CBS News poll.

"I think he gave a speech consistent with sort of the traditional view of the Republican Party," Graham told ABC.

But it's not necessarily a winning strategy, Senator Graham added.

"One thing we're going to have to embrace as Republicans, it's not just enough to criticize President Obama. What would we do differently?" Graham asked.

The Senate Armed Services Committee member urged the conservative soul-searching to start as soon as possible.

"I want the Republican Party to talk openly about the hard things," Graham said. "Like having boots on the ground in Syria and Iraq, American boots on the ground, as part of an international regional force."

Others in the conservative wing have also expressed the need for more military force.

"At some point it will require boots on the ground from the world to be able to deal with this problem," Ohio Gov. John Kasich said Sunday in an interview with CNN.

Another prominent Republican, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, reiterated a similar stance.

"The commander in chief ought to be articulating a robust strategy for not only retaking the territory of Iraq, but also driving this ISIL army out of existence," Pence said Sunday in an interview on Fox News.

The comments come a day after renewed terror threats on American shopping malls from terrorist group al-Shabaab, which claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on an upscale Kenyan mall in 2013.

Graham said the threat should represent a stronger call to action.

"I've never seen more terrorist organizations with more safe havens, with more money, with more capability to strike the homeland than I do today. And that's a direct result of a failed foreign policy by President Obama," Graham said.