News Analysis: While IS becomes more dangerous, critics say U.S. plan is failing

Terror group Islamic State (IS) is becoming more dangerous than ever, radicalizing a growing number of followers over the Internet and having access to radioactive material, but the White House's plan to defeat it is being blasted as weak.

The terrorists have been on the march for months now and the U. S. has reacted with what critics call a "tepid" air bombardment. IS has swept through vast swaths of territory in Syria and northern Iraq and has recently pushed Iraqi forces out of the city of Ramadi.

Appearing Sunday on CBS' Face the Nation, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes said the U.S. faces the "highest threat level" the country has ever faced. That is because of a rising number of foreign fighters traveling in and out of Syria and Iraq, as well as the radicalization of youth through the Internet.

"When you get a young person who is willing to get into these chat rooms, go on the Internet and get radicalized, it's something we are not only unprepared (for), we are also not used to it in this country," he said, referring to terrorists' websites and chat rooms that are radicalizing young Muslims.

To make matters worse, the Pentagon confirmed in recent days that the terror group has acquired enough radioactive material in Iraq to build a "dirty bomb", according to U.S. media.

Those developments come as critics blast the White House for what they call a failing plan to defeat the militants in Iraq and Syria.

"The present strategy is not working," the Heritage Foundation' s national security expert Steven Bucci told Xinhua, adding that the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama needs to drastically increase the numbers of advisers, let them both train and fight with the local units, and drastically increase the number and type of airpower elements, controlled by U.S. special operations forces.

"The only alternatives are to pull out and live with the subsequent disaster, or commit U.S. conventional forces to combat operations to destroy IS," Bucci said.

Earlier this month, Obama committed 450 new troops to help fight IS, which Bucci billed as a "Band-Aid on a sucking chest wound."

The battle against IS has been happening more than three years after the end of the U.S. war in Iraq, which became unpopular with the U.S. public, and the Obama administration is said to be reluctant to commit large numbers of U.S. troops to the fight.

Bucci said one alternative is to embed U.S. Special Forces as both trainers and combat advisers, allowing them to fight with the Iraqi, Kurdish and Syrian forces, and using them to control airpower.

"The presence of those forces with the locals stiffens their spines and could bring some success," he said. Endite