Sen. McCain couldn't possibly have known whether it was true to say, "ISIS taking about two-thirds of the city of Kobani." It's unlikely anyone knew with any precision, including those on the ground. Whether it was ever true, which is doubtful, it's not true more than a week later, according to the BBC. It's a small point, but its importance is how it shows Sen. McCain's willingness to demagogue and falsify in the service of his perennial fear-mongering.
Taking fear-mongering as far as it can go, Sen. McCain claims that ISIS is:
-- now the largest and most powerful terrorist organization in history, uh, they control area the size of, uh, state of Indiana, and they are winning and we are losing. And that is very serious, and it poses a direct threat to the United States of America"."
That should be "poses as" a direct threat, since no serious person can make a credible case for ISIS being a significant threat to the U.S. now, or for the foreseeable future. Or perhaps Sen. McCain knows more about the ISIS Air Force and the ISIS Navy than is presently apparent, and this justifies his fear-mongering.
There is no persuasive evidence that "they are winning and we are losing." There is no persuasive evidence that anyone is winning or losing. What persuasive evidence there is seems to show that everyone is losing. In recent months, the fighting in Syria and Iraq has been stalemated, with minor gains and losses on any side making little if any overall difference.
McCain is fear-mongering even when he claims ISIS controls an area the size of Indiana, roughly 36,400 square miles. All of Syria is 72,000 square miles. What ISIS controls is a patchwork of roads and communities. This patchwork is intertwined with other patchworks of roads and communities controlled by others. And these patchworks continue to change almost daily. "Control" is a chimera in both Syria and Iraq.
As for "the largest and most powerful terrorist organization in history," Sen. McCain is simply saying: be afraid, don't think, just quiver in your boots, that's what Republicans want the American people to do more than anything. For McCain's claim to have any credibility, one must assume that ISIS is larger and more powerful than, among others, al-Qaeda, Hamas, the Taliban, Hezbollah, or U.S. Special Forces.
That conclusion would require rational assessment, and that's no way to win elections.
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