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Kasich: Time to Destroy ISIS, And If That Means U.S. Boots on the Ground, ‘So Be It’
by Susan Jones, CNSnews:
Ohio Gov. John Kasich said on Wednesday, “the time has come to destroy ISIS as part of a coalition, and if that means that U.S. boots have to be on the ground, so be it.”
CNN’s Jake Tapper asked Kasich for his reaction to reports that a bomb planted by terrorists may have brought down a Russian airliner over the Sinai Peninsula. “If you were president right now, what would you do?” Tapper asked.
Well, Jake, first of all, of course, our intelligence community has to be put on high alert,” Kasich responded. “I mean, one of the things that’s absolutely critical is to have robust intelligence to tell us when these things are going to happen. And it seems as though, listening to the report, that Sharm el-Sheikh did not have the security, even though there were intelligence reports that were indicating there was lax security.
“We need to make sure we have robust intelligence. And, Jake, the fact is, is that we don’t have all the human intelligence that we need. It’s very difficult. But it is absolutely critical that we rebuild our intelligence capabilities.
“Secondly, look, we got to face facts. Either you’re going to pay me now or you’re going to pay me a lot more later. And I would just hope that our Western friends and people that share our Western values would realize that the time has come to destroy ISIS as part of a coalition.
“And if that means that U.S. boots have to be on the ground, so be it, because to allow this to linger, to put this off, to think that somehow this is going to go away is naive at best. And so, if I were president, I would be working the phones. I would have been working phones a lot sooner than this to deal with worldwide menace and particularly a menace to our way of life.”
Later in the interview, Kasich appeared to contradict himself:
