Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich expressed outrage on CNN Friday over the Obama administration’s tepid response to the genocidal assault by ISIS in Iraq. He insisted the United States must do more than merely stop ISIS–it should hunt the terrorist organization down and destroy it.
He told New Day co-anchor Kate Bolduan that the problem with radical Islam is nothing new — it’s been brewing since Iran invaded the U.S. embassy in Tehran during the Carter administration, and “we have not had the courage to confront how bad this is.”
He also emphasized that ISIS isn’t merely a local organization — its tentacles spread throughout the world, actively fighting in Iraq, Lebanon and Syria, and recruiting members in Europe and the United States.
Bolduan asked what can be done.
I think that we should be arming and training the Kurds who are very reliable. We should be arming the traditional tribes with whom we had very good relations back when we were in Iraq. We should be providing air power in a massive way. We should be hunting down ISIS anywhere it exists, whether it’s in northern Syria, Lebanon or it’s in Iraq.
But our goal shouldn’t be to stop ISIS. Our goal should be to destroy ISIS. This is a radical anti-human organization.
Bolduan wondered whether the same goals might be met by escalating air strikes in the region.
“I think if you train and equip Kurds and train and equip traditional Sunni tribes and ally yourself with everybody who wants to defeat ISIS, you will in fact defeat ISIS.”
Gingrich stressed that complete annihilation should be the objective when dealing with all radical Islamist groups.
“ISIS is a radical Islamist organization dedicated to wiping out everybody who’s not prepared to convert to Islam,” he said, and likened it to Hamas in Gaza and Boko Haram in Nigeria.
Watch the interview via CNN.
