Graham launches bid for presidency

CENTRAL, S.C. – South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham opened his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination Monday with a grim accounting of radical Islam “running wild” in a world imperiled also by Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

He dedicated himself to defeating U.S. adversaries – a commitment that would place thousands of troops back in Iraq, essentially re-engaging in a war launched in 2003.

“I’ve got one simple message,” he told supporters in the small town where he grew up. “I have more experience with our national security than any other candidate in this race. That includes you, Hillary.”

In that fashion, he took on Democratic candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton – the former secretary of state – as well as non-interventionists in his own party and rivals with little to no foreign policy experience.

Graham, 59, becomes the first candidate in either party to hail from one of the first four states that cast presidential primary ballots. Iowa and New Hampshire lead the process, followed by South Carolina and Nevada.

Having won his third term in November, Graham is a prominent Senate voice in seeking a more muscular foreign policy and one who casts the threats facing the United States in particularly dark terms.

“Simply put, radical Islam is running wild,” he said. “They have more safe havens, more money, more weapons and more capability to strike our homeland than any time since 9/11. They are large, they are rich, and they’re entrenched.”

He said as president, he’d “make them small, poor and on the run.”

“I’m afraid some Americans have grown tired of fighting them,” he said. “I have bad news to share with you: The radical Islamists are not tired of fighting you.”

Despite his focus on Islamic State militants with footholds in those two nations, Graham said Iran poses the gravest threat.

If the U.S. does not head off a nuclear capability in Iran, Graham said, “Iran will trigger a nuclear arms race in the least stable region on Earth, and make it more likely that people who aspire to genocide will have the most effective means to commit it.”

He said recently there is no avoiding the reality that more Americans will have to fight and die to defend the country.

His approach contrasts with that of fellow senator and presidential candidate Rand Paul of Kentucky, who favors less military intervention. And his blunt talk about more troops and casualties stands out even among other Republican contenders who promise to quash Islamic State militants but sidestep details.

Polls suggest a majority of American adults support military action against the group commonly called ISIS. But support drops when respondents are asked specifically about a ground war.