Fiorina: US Shouldn’t Put Boots on the Ground Against ISIS ‘Yet’

Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina argued that the US shouldn’t put boots on the ground to fight ISIS “yet” in an interview broadcast on on Thursday’s “Varney & Co” on the Fox Business Network.

Fiorina was asked, “Would you put 10,000 American soldiers on the ground to beat up ISIS militarily?”

She responded, “No, not yet. Because there are a whole host of things that we should have done, that we have not done. And unfortunately, I think Obama has managed to polarize the debate about what to do with ISIS with a false choice. The false choice that Obama presents to the American people is if you don’t agree with what I am not doing, then the only option is tens of thousands of boots on the ground. It’s simply false. So, let us being with, we’ve had a fairly effective bombing campaign over the last couple days, why haven’t we been doing that for a year-and-a-half? Because we’ve had politically expedient rules of engagement, that’s why. Why haven’t we provided — with the Jordanians, with the bombs and materiel for their air force they’ve asked us for?

Earlier, in an interview on the Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends,” Fiorina criticized Secretary of State John Kerry’s remarks about the “rationale” for the Charlie Hebdo attack, saying, [relevant remarks begin around 3:00 of the second video] “honestly, it reminds me a bit of Hillary Clinton telling us that we need to try and empathize with our enemies. What it says is Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Barack Obama do not understand the nature of this threat. They will not call this threat by its name, radical Islamic terrorism. ISIS is at war with us, and therefore, we must be at war with them, and we must win that war.”

Fiorina added, “we should continue to wage a far more effective bombing campaign, which, yes, does mean special ops forces on the ground, but also, our Arab allies in this region, who have been fighting ISIS on the ground, as we speak, for quite a long time, whether those are the Kurds, the Jordanians, the Turks, the Saudis, the Egyptians, the Bahrainis, you name it, they have asked us for very specific things, bombs and materiel, intelligence sharing, coordination on the ground. We have done none of it. I would do all of it. Look, we have allies who understand that this is their fight, as well. they will help us fight, as will the French, and the Germans now, and the British, as well. But, only the United States of America can lead, and we must provide support, and resolve, and leadership to win this fight.”

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