“The bitterness from Mali, the arrogance of the French will not be forgotten at all”, he said, welcoming the Paris attack.
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“This is the war of our time, and we have to be serious in engaging and creating a strategy to confront it and take it out”, Bush told radio host Hugh Hewitt. These more visible responses are only part of America’s response; intelligence is being shared across oceans and throughout the world, and the United States has satisfied information requests from France. “ISIS has American military equipment they’ve captured in Iraq”, said Senator Ted Cruz.
Foreign policy is the new focus on the 2016 campaign trail in the wake of the deadly terrorist attacks in Paris, marking a fresh chapter in the race for the White House that has so far focused on issues such as immigration, the economy and bringing change to Washington.
“Bringing people into this country from that area of the world I think is a huge mistake”, he said.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush called for a “thorough screening” of those refugees in an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union”.
France’s president François Hollande has called it “an act of war”, and promised a “merciless response to ISIS barbarians”.
The aftermath of the Paris attacks is likely not just to fuel Republican criticisms of Obama’s record but to offer an opening for GOP candidates to distinguish themselves on national security. Lindsey Graham is pleading with President Barack Obama to take stronger action against the Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL) now before America experiences another 9/11.
“We’re confident that in the coming days and weeks working with the French we will be able intensify our strikes against ISIL (Islamic State) in both Syria and Iraq to make clear that there is no safe haven for these terrorists”. He went so far as to say that the first goal of the U.S. military has been to “contain” the problem and that “they have been contained”. “They are not a JV team, Mr. President”.
“When you look at Paris, you know, the toughest gun laws in the world, nobody had guns except for the bad guys, nobody”, Trump said.
Ever since the USA military campaign against ISIS began in 2014, Pentagon officials have said the US has time on its side. If the vacuum remained, ISIS or something like it would revive and flourish, especially if the rulers continued to suppress the Sunni populations, whose discontent ISIS shrewdly exploits. It was a spat that seemed to reveal his idiosyncratic worldview and to suggest that he lacks a deeper grounding in national security policy.
“We won’t be able to take more refugees”, he said. “This is an organised effort to destroy western civilisation”.
“I think we need to be obviously very, very cautious”, Bush said.
One new wrinkle since Friday’s attacks in Paris is the prospect of France asking its NATO allies to come to its aid, invoking the 28 members’ treaty obligation to consider an armed attack on one member as an attack against them all. More specifically, it is why they chose a rock concert and a football match, venues with a largely young demographic as their locations of choice.
The United States conducted an airstrike against a senior operative for ISIS in Libya, defense officials said Saturday.
“I want to express solidarity with the people of France”. “You can say what you want, but if they had guns, if our people had guns, if they were allowed to carry…it would’ve been a much, much different situation”.
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Every one of three Democrats and dozen or so Republicans running for President, with the possible exception of Rand Paul, has stressed that it is the role of the U.S.to lead the fight against various global ills including Jihadist terror. That sentiment may or may not be true, but it will not even be plausible until the US understands that the time for displaying our partisanship to the world is not in the first few hours after a brutal attack in the capital of our oldest ally.
