Former UN Ambassador: 'American Security Cannot Rest On The Performance Of Its Allies Or Other Countries'
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Rich Zeoli talked to former Ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT from the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington DC.
Bolton said the White House is moving too slow in confronting the spread of the terror group ISIS in the Middle East.
"Do you want to just take your time to do that or do you want to act quickly before it can consolidate its control over the territory that it holds, a territory the size of Great Britain, and become even stronger and much more costly to overthrow. I subscribe to the Winston Churchill view, when he described the Russian Revolution saying, 'we should've strangled Bolshevism in its cradle.' That's what we should've done with ISIS. They took over Mosul in June of 2014. They broke out and seized Fallujah in January of 2014. It's over a year since they really emerged from Syria and began to conquer territory in Iraq. Our response has been a series of limited air strikes and some cooperation with the Kurds. Those are positive steps but they're obviously not nearly sufficient."
Bolton believes US troops returning to Iraq will be necessary if we ever hope to win the war against ISIS.
"If you don't want boots on the ground then lets go back to the question, do you want to destroy ISIS, do you think it's a threat to the United States? You can't say alone, 'well let the Egyptians do it or let the Jordanians do it,' because they're not capable of it. If you say, 'well if they can't do it, I don't want Americans involved,' then you're saying you don't want to destroy ISIS. American security cannot rest on the performance of its allies or other countries."
Bolton also took the time to strike out at libertarian leaning Republican Senator Rand Paul, saying his foreign policy agenda is too similar to President Obama's.
"I think, although he starts from different ideological perspective than Barack Obama and although his chain of logic is also very different, they end up in the same place. They both believe that a strong America is a provocative America and I don't think that's right. I think it's a weak America that's provocative and I think we're seeing the consequences of a weak America. I don't know what Senator Paul's national security policy will ultimately be. It seems to change daily. I believe in the possibility of redemption. Eventually he may come around as well. That's why we need a robust debate. I think a lot of the people who support many of the Senator's domestic positions are unaware of what his foreign policy is."
