ISIS now is viewed as such a threat against the U.S. homeland that a top White House national security advisor, Benjamin Rhodes, said Friday officials were weighing direct military action against the group in Syria.

Such action would make Washington and the Bashar al-Assad regime of Syria unlikely allies in the fight against ISIS that has carved out a self-proclaimed Islamic state out of portions of both Syria and Iraq.

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Rhodes made his comment one day after Gen. Martin Dempsey, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, said dealing with ISIS would entail strikes on Syrian soil. Rhodes, deputy national security adviser, agreed with that assessment.

Rhodes made his comments at Martha's Vineyard where the president and family were vacationing. His language echoed that of Obama's when he declared airstrikes would take place against ISIS in Iraq.

Declining to address the legality of strikes against ISIS in Syria, Rhodes said the president and officials would consult with Congress about the use of additional military force in the region. The U.S. would take any action necessary to protect the American people, Rhodes added.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel at the start of the week said the president had asked military planners to prepare options for all contingencies in Syria. He said administration officials were weighing the use of military force against Assad's regime in light of reported use of chemical weapons in an attack last week.

That would put the U.S. in the contradictory position of hitting both Assad and Assad's opponents at the same time in the same place.

Back to ISIS, Rhodes said anyone coming against Americans would, in turn, have America come after them. Officials were actively weighing their option in Syria, according to Rhodes, who added American power would not be restricted by borders.

Speaking to reporters, Rhodes went on to say the ISIS threat went beyond traditional national borders, so military options had to extend to both Syria and Iraq. While the U.S. has ramped up military assistance to moderate anti-Assad forces, officials wanted them to go beyond defeating Assad to squeezing out ISIS from space where the radical Muslim group operates

Rhodes said U.S, military assistance to forces confronting ISIS already had transcended national borders since recent aid was given to Peshmerga Kurdish fighters to expel ISIS militants from Mosul Dam.

Dempsey said the only way to defeat ISIS was to take the fight against them inside Syria. Given the group's "apocalyptic end-of-days strategic vision," Dempsey said the group would have to be confronted and defeated at some point.

TagsISIS, U.S., ISIL, james foley, benjamin rhodes, martin dempsey, assad, chemical weapons