Carson: Work with Putin in Syria, "keep him on the run" in Ukraine
Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson laid out a foreign policy vision Sunday that focused on Vladimir Putin and the Russian leader's increasing influence in the Middle East.
Asked on ABC News what Carson would do about the escalating conflict in Syria, the retired neurosurgeon said that he would turn his attention to Putin and Iran, the "forces that are propping up the Assad regime."
"Look where most of the refugees are, at the Turkey-Syrian border. I think we should establish a no fly zone there and we should enforce it," Carson said in the televised interview. "We should be doing this in communication with Putin to try and decrease the likelihood of conflict and keeping the forces apart. But also we need to be opposing him in other parts of the world."
When it comes to Russia's encroachment into eastern Europe, Carson said he wants to "keep [Putin] on the run" by arming Ukraine.
"We need to give Ukraine offensive weapons," Carson said. "We need to reestablish a missile defense system in the eastern bloc of countries so that we oppose him. Let's keep him on the run, we need to recognize that, you know, his fuel is oil. And we need to do everything we can to develop our energy resources at an economical rate so that we keep the oil prices down, which keeps him in his little box."
Carson praised President Obama's recent decision to send 50 U.S. special operations troops to Northern Syria to assist Kurdish fighters in their fight against ISIS, calling it "a good idea" that he "actually" agrees with.
"I think that's a move in the right direction, because we clearly need to have those special ops in lots of different areas, but certainly in helping to guide what the Air Force is doing," Carson said. But he cautioned that it's "only a small part of" the ramp up of the war against terrorism.
"We need to have a much bigger plan when it comes to battling the global jihadist," he added.
Other Republican candidates have slammed the president's latest move to put American forces on the ground in Syria.
Carly Fiorina, a former tech executive and political outsider in the 2016 race, called the special operations involvement "too little, too late."
"It's a recognition that you cannot have a successful bombing campaign without people on the ground telling you where to place the bomb," Fiorina told Fox News Sunday. Of the president, she added that finally, "he's sort of come to reality."
"When America does not act, when we do not lead as we have not the last three years under this president, our options become very constrained and the situation becomes more dangerous," she continued. "I'm glad he did this, but we still do not have a strategy in Syria. We do not have a strategy to deal with ISIS."
Another GOP contender, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, called the president an "incompetent commander-in-chief" with a "delusional" secretary of state in John Kerry for their tactics in the Middle East.
"Sending 50 American Special Forces into Syria, in the eyes of ISIL shows that Obama is not all in, it is a sign of weakness to ISIL. They have sized Obama up and they think he's weak," Graham said in a Fox News Sunday interview, referring to an alternative acronym for ISIS. "And to our allies, sending 50 troops means that we're not committed to destroying ISIL. And if we're not committed to destroying ISIL, they will attack us here."
Graham, a member of the Senate Armed Services committee, also bashed the president's handling of Russia's incursion into Syria.
"Obama's allowed Russia to dismember Syria, like it did Ukraine," he said. "This is a complete disaster for us, it means the war never ends, the refugees continue to flow, and ISIL has recruiting opportunity now."