December 25, 2015
In a startling suggestion, GOP presidential aspirant Donald Trump proposed in last week’s Republican debate that the United States ally with Iran in an effort to defeat the Islamic State, which he saw as the main threat to the United States.
Trump said, “We have to do one thing at a time. We can’t be fighting ISIS and fighting [Syrian President Bashar al-] Assad. Assad is fighting ISIS. Russia is now fighting ISIS. And Iran is fighting ISIS…. We have to get rid of ISIS first…. But we can’t be fighting everybody at one time.”
The suggestion of allying with Iran against the Islamic State was a startling proposal from a man who has spoken so critically of the nuclear agreement with Iran, saying that the Islamic Republic took President Obama to the cleaners in that deal.
One candidate in the debate swiftly disputed what Trump proposed. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said the primary threat to the United States was from Iran and that should be the focus.
“We have to focus on exactly what the priorities are,” Christie said. “The president has set up an awful situation through his deal with Iran, because, what his deal with Iran has done, is empower them and enrich them. And that’s the way ISIS has been created and formed there. ISIS is created and formed because of the abuse that Assad and his Iranian sponsors have rained down on the Sunnis in Syria.”
Actually, ISIS started as an Al-Qaeda affiliate in Iraq whose primary goal was to kill American occupation troops.
“We need to focus our attention on Iran,” Christie said, “because, if you miss Iran, you are not going to get ISIS. The two are inextricably connected because one causes the other,” he argued rather incoherently.
Last week’s debate was devoted to foreign policy. But it focused almost entirely on the Islamic State because CNN, the host, asked very few questions on other topics.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush called Trump on the carpet at one point and said he was not a serious candidate with his talk about confronting ISIS. “Look, two months ago Donald Trump said that ISIS was not our fightÖ. That is not a serious kind of candidate.”
