South Carolina Senator and Republican presidential candidate Lindsey Graham argued the Paris terror attacks are an opportunity “to rally the entire world” to fight ISIS and “should be a wake-up call that rather than trying to figure out how to secure our borders, which is important, how about let’s go on the offense?” on the Fox Business Network on Friday.
Graham said the right way to react to the attack is “one, with thoughts and prayers for those who have lost their loved ones for no good reason, put it in perspective. We’ve had a Russian jetliner taken down, most likely by ISIL. We had a bombing in Beirut in a Shiite area, and now this. The people I blame are the terrorists. But the sooner we understand the fight, the more able we will be to win it. There’s nothing we can do to appease these people. They want a master religion, like the Nazis want to master race. The biggest victims of all are fellow Muslims. there’s an opportunity coming out of this, I think, to rally the entire world, because this is a war between ISIL, radical Islam and the entire world, and hope we’ll look at this anew, when this settles down.”
He added, “as horrific as this is, if they could get a more lethal form of killing, they would do it. Their ability to kill, and desire to kill is only limited by their capability. The nightmare for me is a radical Islamic state like Iran, a nation state, that I think think has a religious doctrine different, but really the same. When the Ayatollah says he wants to kill — death to Israel, he literally means it. He is a religious man, driven by a form of Islam that would require him to purify his faith, destroy the state of Israel, and come after us. The sooner we understand that, the better we’ll be. So, you’ve got an Iran problem on the Shia side, but the average Iranian’s not a radical Islamist. But the Ayatollah, in his theocracy is very dangerous and lethal. Then you have the Sunni version. All I can tell you is, there’s an opportunity here to rally the world to push back against these guys, and they’re not ten feet tall, Lou.”
Later Graham stated, [relevant remarks begin around 2:40 of the second video] “tonight, along with the Russian airliner, and the bombings in Lebanon, should be a wake-up call that rather than trying to figure out how to secure our borders, which is important, how about let’s go on the offense? How about this idea? How about attack them in a fashion to destroy the caliphate? Show me how reforming immigration policy protects the world from religious Nazis. What will protect the world from this threat, is for the world to come together, led by the united states to go in on the ground and destroy this caliphate before they come here. That’s my advice. My advice is to go on the offense.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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