Obama: ISIS threats against US, allies 'doesn't frighten us'

(CNN) -- While ISIS militants keep trying to spread their radical Islamist rule in Syria and Iraq, a slew of U.S. officials are scrambling to find the best way to stop them.

After the House approved President Barack Obama's plan to arm and train Syrian rebels in the fight against ISIS, the Senate could vote as early as Thursday on the same measure.

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But the passage in the House didn't come easily. More than one-third of the House opposed the measure; many Republicans said the strategy isn't tough enough to defeat ISIS, while many Democrats worry the plan could drag the United States into another long military engagement.

And even though some Senators expect the plan to pass in the Democrat-controlled chamber, Obama could see tough challenges from his own party.

'I think it's very hard to sort out the moderate rebels from the extremists and I have a real worry that once we send these rebels back into the battle space there is very little we can do to prevent them from locking arms with al Qaeda or elements of ISIS,' Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut said.

But Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill, a member of the Armed Services Committee, said the U.S. intelligence community will play an important role in vetting the rebels.

She also said training could take up to a year before arms are provided.

'All of those people criticizing this choice, I have yet to hear their better idea,' the Missouri senator said.

No boots on the ground in Iraq

Obama reiterated Wednesday that the United States will not send combat troops back to Iraq.

'As your commander in chief, I will not commit you and the rest of our armed forces to fighting another ground war in Iraq,' Obama told troops Wednesday at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida.

Instead, Obama said, U.S. forces will support Iraqi forces on the ground as the Iraqis fight ISIS.

As it turns out, no U.S. allies have agreed so far to put boots on the ground in Iraq, Secretary of State John Kerry told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday.

'At this moment, no country has been asked to put boots on the ground or no country is talking of it. And we don't think it's a good idea right now,' Kerry said.

'I want to be clear: The U.S. troops that have been deployed to Iraq do not and will not have a combat mission.'

But Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee told Kerry he's skeptical of the administration's plan to fight ISIS, also known as ISIL.

'Do you understand how unrealistic and how that effort on the ground where they are based, where ISIL is based, doesn't match the rhetoric that the administration laid out? And therefore you're asking us to approve of something that we know, the way you've laid it out, makes no sense,' he told Kerry.

On Thursday, Kerry will testify before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel will testify before the House Armed Services Committee.

CNN's Deirdre Walsh, Ted Barrett, Jim Acosta, Kevin Liptak and Josh Levs

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