Is This Why Rand Won't Rule Out Ground Troops in the Battle Against ISIS?

To get further in the good graces of the war mongering Republican establishment (and because poll numbers are changing in favor of boots on the ground)?

WSJ reports:

Several Republicans on Sunday called on the Obama administration to put U.S. ground forces into the fight against Islamic State, countering the administration’s plan to rely on ground forces from countries in the region.

“It is our fight. It is not just their fight,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) said Sunday on “Fox News Sunday.” He said Islamic State, also known as ISIS and ISIL, will eventually attack the U.S. unless it is stopped. “They are planning to come here. To destroy ISIL, you have to kill or capture their leaders,” he said. “The president needs to rise to the occasion before we all get killed at home.”...

“I’m not suggesting we need to get into another ground war in the Middle East. I’m just saying we cannot do this without having some forces on the ground that can help our air campaign. You have to have that,” said  [James Baker, secretary of state under former president George H.W. Bush], speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“Everybody tells me, you got to have some people on the ground. You can’t do this with just air power,” he said.

Former Central Intelligence Agency Director Michael Hayden, a retired Air Force general, said as many as 5,000 U.S. military personnel could be on the ground in the region by the end of the year to combat ISIL. “Air power won’t be sufficient. When you just rely on airpower, people don’t doubt your strength, they doubt your intention,” he said, speaking on “Fox News Sunday.”..

Public opinion polls have suggested the American public, though war weary, might support deeper military intervention than airstrikes and military training for Iraqi forces and others.

A recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found that almost two-thirds of respondents believe it is in the nation’s interest to confront ISIS. In that poll, 40% of Americans said action should be limited to airstrikes. But 34% of Americans said they supported both airstrikes and committing U.S. ground troops, a major change from an electorate that in 2013 opposed President Barack Obama’s proposal to launch airstrikes against Syria.