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Published September 05, 2014

This March 25, 2014 file photo shows House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., leaving a press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington.AP

A top House Republican is urging the Obama administration to consider sending U.S. ground forces as part of its strategy against the Islamic State, saying we will have to risk Americans" to defeat the terrorist group.

The call by Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers R-Mich., puts him out in front of even his Republican colleagues, many of whom echo the administration line that the U.S. should not commit boots on the ground in Iraq.

Secretary of State John Kerry reiterated that stance on Friday in Wales ahead of a meeting among allies on how to address the Islamic State threat.

I think thats a red line for everybody here, no boots on the ground, Kerry said.

But Rogers, in a forceful op-ed published in Time, said the U.S. must not let the standard trope that there be no boots on the ground become a mantra of self-defeat or a definition of intelligence operations and special capabilities.

The column comes as even Democrats take a tougher stance toward ISIS. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., while not supporting U.S. boots on the ground, plans to introduce a bill authorizing U.S. airstrikes in Syria.

Rogers, who also supports taking the fight to Syria, stressed that American infantry and tanks rolling back into Iraq or Syria are not needed. But it is not enough simply to send a few hundred troops to defend American diplomatic compounds, Rogers wrote.

This is a terrorist organization that has an army, and we need to treat it that way. To defeat this enemy, we will have to risk Americans who will be operating in the fight. But lets be clear, American lives around the world are presently at risk from ISISs brutality, Rogers said.

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Top Republican warns 'boots on the ground' may be needed to defeat ISIS