French Public Wants Boots on the Ground to Fight ISIS

A majority of French people say they support efforts to combat the Islamic State by sending French troops to fight them on the ground in Syria and Iraq.

A new poll found that 56 percent of respondents supported sending French troops to fight the terrorist group in its base of power if the troops were part of an international coalition, according to Reuters. The poll had a margin of error of 1.8 percent involved 1,005 people over the age of 18 contacted by telephone from Sept. 11 to Sept. 12.

While the French people seem to support sending troops to Syria, the government has so far ruled out that possibility and seems to be strongly opposed to such an operation. The French government believes that regional players such as Saudi Arabia and Turkey should take the lead in restoring stability to the area.

France just last week began to conduct reconnaissance operations over Syria in the run up to possible airstrikes. France had previously limited its involvement in the international coalition battling ISIS from above to strikes in Iraq because France was afraid that attacks in Syria would ultimately end up helping the government of Bashar al Assad, which France believes should not be a part of any solution to the Syrian Civil War.

The support for French troops to go to Syria may be a reflection of changes in the public's attitude after a series of high profile terror incidents in the past year. The most infamous being the attack on the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, which left more than a dozen people dead. More recently, an attack on a high speed train was thwarted by a group of Americans who noticed the attacker's suspicious behavior.

The motivations for these attacks are often attributed to the rise of ISIS and its calls for people around the world to attack governments.