Buchanan: 'There Is No Caliphate that Can Threaten the United States'

On Wednesday’s “Your World” on the Fox News Channel, conservative commentator Pat Buchanan expressed his opposition to any efforts to introduce a U.S. ground troop element in Iraq to take on the threat of ISIS.

Buchanan insisted the onus should fall upon the local actors in the region with the United States supplying air power.

“Here’s what we ought not to do — do not send another American army into Iraq and do not send an American army into Syria,” Buchanan said. “The Syrians, the Turks, the Iraqis, the Kurds have hundreds of thousands of soldiers. There’s about 16,000 in ISIS. They can deal with the boots on the ground and the Americans can provide air power. But to send Americans in there, Neil — this is why al Qaeda is all over the world today. They hit us on 9/11. We go crashing into Afghanistan, try to rebuild it. We go crashing into Iraq. We go crashing into Syria, Lebanon.”

Buchanan went on to explain that even if ISIS formed its so-called caliphate, it would not be a threat to the United States.

“There is no caliphate that can threaten the United States,” he added. “Caliphate is a state. We are threatened by individual terrorists. What we ought to do — this is going to be a long war, Neil. What you ought to do is systematically work with all the players in the region, almost all of whom despise this group. Work with them. They provide the troops as they did at Mt. Sinjar and provide the air power with them and systematically degrade and attack these people until they are finished, quite frankly.”

Should Obama pursue that course of action, Buchanan said he believed Obama could win the support of Congress.

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