The candidates on ISIS
November 23, 2015
- Donald Trump- Trump said, “Today I would consider sending 10,000 U.S. troops and engage other countries in the region to fight ISIS.”
- Ben Carson- “Boots on the ground would probably be important, because throughout that whole Middle East region, we have been calling for a coalition of people who have a vested interest,” Carson said. “We have not seen a coalition form, but that’s because there has been no leadership.We need to use our intelligence to a much greater extent, our intelligence agencies. I think looking at the ideological war being waged by the jihadists has been very effective. We need to wage a counter-war against them utilizing social media, and the mechanisms they use. And the clerics, we need to be putting pressure on them to disavow what ISIS is doing.”
- Senator Marco Rubio- Rubio replied, “I would invoke NATO’s Article 5, which declares an attack on one ally to be an attack on them all. I also want more airstrikes and special operations. We also need to get our Sunni allies more involved in this fight. The only way to defeat ISIS ideologically and militarily is by Sunni themselves.”
- Senator Ted Cruz- “There is no meaningful risk of Christians committing acts of terror. If there were a group of radical Christians pledging to murder anyone who had a different religious view than they, we would have a different national security situation. I call on Congress to pass the ex-Patriot Terrorist Act legislation I’ve introduced that says any American who joins ISIS to wage jihad against Americans they forfeit their citizenship. We will not allow jihadists to come back to America using U.S. passports to murder American men and women,” Cruz said.
- Governor Jeb Bush- “And I think it would be require more boots on the ground, if you will, or more troops on the ground, more special operators, more people that are embedded in the Iraqi army, for example, more training for the Peshmerga forces and more engagement with the Sunni tribal leaders,” Bush said. “We should focus our efforts as it relates to refugees on the Christians that are being slaughtered.”
- Carly Fiorina- Fiorina said, “I will work with allies in the Middle East who have asked for specific resources and assistance to fight the extremist group. For example, Turkey, which has asked for help in establishing a no-fly zone along its shared border with Syria.
- Senator Rand Paul- “We should learn from the tragedy in Paris is that we have to be very careful and very cautious, extraordinarily cautious, about who comes to visit, who immigrates here and who studies here,” Paul said.
- Governor Chris Christie- Chris Christie said, “We must never allow this cult of evil to take hold in our country or to live amongst us. It is the antithesis of what it means to be a free American.”
- Governor John Kasich- Kasich said, “We must have a coalition to fight ISIS and no-fly zones. In addition, I propose invoking Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty.”
- Senator Lindsey Graham- “Use the armies in the region which are large and professional. Integrate our forces among those armies with the French and other NATO nations. Have an air campaign supplemented by a ground campaign of 80 to 100,000 ground forces of which we’ll will be about 10 percent and going on the ground and destroy these people before they hit us here at home and continue to do damage,” said Graham, who believes another 9/11 will happen to America if action isn’t taken.
- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton- “There is no question in my mind that if we summon our resources, both our leadership resources and all of the tools at our disposal, not just military force, which should be used as a last resort, but our diplomacy, our development aid, law enforcement, sharing of intelligence in a much more open and cooperative way, that we can bring people together,” Clinton said. On Thursday Clinton proposed a new plan, “There has to be a Sunni- Awakening against ISIS in 2016, like the Sunni Awakening that toppled Al Qaeda in Iraq in 2007.” “You can’t really deal with ISIS unless you are also willing to deal with Assad,” “Assad has murdered even more Syrians than ISIS has.”
- Senator Bernie Sanders- Martin O’Malley stated: “This actually is America’s fight. It cannot solely be America’s fight. America is best when we work in collaboration with our allies.”
- Governor Martin O’Malley- O’Malley said, “There is to be greater American involvement, it’s not going to be a matter of sending in the third Marine division.”
- President Barack Obama- Obama says, “The short-term response to the terrorist attacks is relatively easy: The American military provided information to help French warplanes bomb Islamic State targets on Sunday in northern Syria. Senior White House officials have stopped the American ground troops from getting involved. We will continue what we have been doing, only better. Including, more air strikes, Special Operations raids, assistance to local allies and attack against Islamic State targets outside Syria and Iraq.”
