Local military expert, lawmakers react to president's address

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – In an address to the nation Wednesday, President Barack Obama pledged to wage an unrelenting war on Islamic extremists, using airstrikes to target the terror group ISIS in both Iraq and Syria and sending nearly 500 additional troops to help Iraqi security forces.

A local military expert watched the president's address in the News4Jax studios and weighed in.

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Retired U.S. Marine Corps Gunnery Sgt. Marc Holloway said one way to destroy ISIS is to cut off the group's funding.

"The financial resources are significant. They hold the major oil fields that are in Northern Iraq, and they're selling the oil on the black market," Holloway explained. "Their intake is in the neighborhood of $1 million to $2 million a day, which makes them quite well-financed internally, and that gives them the capabilities to execute other strategies that they may have against us. What we need to do is get them away from that cash cow and get that back into the hands of the Iraqi people."

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said ISIS will be destroyed, but he said it's going to be a long, hard fight.

He released this statement after the president's address: "It's going to be probably years. The United States is putting together the coalition that will go after them. The U.S. will probably put boots on the ground, but it will be more commando raids and forward air observers with others to do the actual strikes on the ground. But we have no choice. This is a vicious, diabolical group that must be stopped."

Before the president's remarks, Congressman Ander Crenshaw, a member of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, released a statement that read in part: "There is no end in sight to the growing terrorism and heinous murders that the United States and the world have witnessed from ISIS. … The eve of the 13th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks on America, serves as a poignant reminder that a long-term, comprehensive strategy is necessary to eliminate ISIS's threat to the United States, our interests, and our allies."