Krauthammer: 'We Have to Go into Syria to Attack ISIS'

Krauthammer: 'We Have to Go into Syria to Attack ISIS'

On Tuesday’s “The O’Reilly Factor,” Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer argued for a more proactive approach in dealing with the ISIS threat in northern Iraq as it continues to seize more and more territory.

Host Bill O’Reilly took a term from former Vice President Dick Cheney to describe the Obama administration’s reaction to ISIS’s gains, “dithering.” Krauthammer agreed, noting that would be the appropriate term for President Barack Obama from day one with regards to U.S. policy in Middle Eastern hotspots.

“Well, he has dithered since the day he got into office,” Krauthammer said. “It took him a year to decide on the surge in Afghanistan. It went yes then no then maybe. In between that he announces a surge in the same sentence, he announces a withdrawal. He is unsure. He has been uncertain from the beginning. But he is he arrogant enough not to listen to advice. And here he is — he goes off and plays golf or who knows what he was doing at a time when Iraq is in maximum peril.”

Krauthammer laid out how this deteriorating situation should be handled, which would not involve the Kurds in northeastern Iraq not would it involve drone warfare. Instead, Krauthammer urged for ISIS to be hit within Syrian territory, which has been a staging area for the rogue forces.

“Let me say a couple of things,” he continued. “The Kurds are of no use to us. They captured Kirkuk. They have their own state. They have been longing for that for 100 years since the Versailles conference and they have it in reach. They are not going to want to get involved in this war. And I can understand that entirely. The second thing is drones are useless. A drone is terrific if you want to take out a single terrorist in a coffee shop somewhere in northern Pakistan.”

“But here you need heavy air power to knock out these convoys and to hit these staging areas which we can do,” he added. “One other thing, which General Keene recommends, we cannot honor the border between Iraq and Syria. It no longer exists in the real world.  We have to go into Syria to attack ISIS or all of this is useless. They are going to have their safe havens.”

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor

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