lindsay just mentioned libya. they re metastasizing all over the middle east. and we do not have a regional strategy. we think some number of troops, along with this coalition, would be the way to take out isis. and to also make sure that bashar al assad leaves power as well since he is the butcher that has killed 250,000 of his own people. senator graham, i ve read that you are proposing a 100,000 strong force, provided by egypt, turkey and saudi arabia. this weekend, former secretary of defense, robert gates, said that will not work. let me play for you what he said. you hear people talk about sending combat formations from arab nations into iraq to fight
debates. while the strategy is the right strategy, it just needs to be set up. i think it does need to be sped up and intensified. i think while isis is a long-term problem for us, we have near-term issues associated with it. all you have to do is look at the downing of the russian airliner and the attacks in paris and the attacks in beirut and so on. so we have a near term problem that needs to be addressed or a near-term challenge from isis that needs to be addressed but when i hear people talk about a completely different strategy, i don t know what that is. putting tens of thousands of u.s. troops in there is not a near-term solution. it would take months and months, even if you decided you wanted to do it, to put the logistics in place, get the troops trained and so on and i m not sure they don t aggravate the problem. you re not going to have combat formations coming out of raqqah wearing isis uniforms to confront american troops. they re going to melt into a population of seve
they are trying to accomplish. what their goals are. as i said. most of these countries have another agenda. the saudis are worried about iran, the turks more about the kurds and so on. but they re both united in the fact that assad has to go before you can make progress against isis. i think we need to listen to them if we want them to be active and aggressive members of the coalition. but the reality the you hear people talk about sending combat formations from arab nations into iraq to fight isis, that s just not going to happen. first they are not going to send their troops, not willing to send their troops but second the iraqis probably wouldn t allow them to come anyway. you ve gotten a iranian influenced government in baghdad and the notion that they would invite saudi or gulf state troops into their country to fight what is an internal fight in their eyes i think is very
s arabia are not sort of following the u.s. strategic goal here? well, i think those two really do have to be on board or we have to be on board with them in terms of priorities, and i think we need to look at what they are trying to accomplish, what their goals are. as i said, most of these countries have another agenda. the saudis are worried about iran, the turks more about the kurds and so on. but they re both united in the fact that assad has to go before you can make any real progress against isis. i think we need to listen to them if we want them to be active and aggressive members of the coalition. but the reality is you hear people talk about sending combat formations from arab nations into iraq to fight isis. that s just not going to happen. first, they are not going to send their troops, not willing to send their troops, but, second, the iraqis probably wouldn t allow them to come anyway.
don t aggravate the problem. you re not going to have combat formations coming out of raqqah wearing isis uniforms to confront american troops. they re going to melt into a population of several hundred thousand people or more broadly. so i don t see what a totally different kind of strategy, what kind of totally different strategy would actually work in those circumstances. robert gates, former secretary of defense to presidents bush and obama. coming up, it may be the biggest political endorsement of the republican primary season and it s the one that comes from the new hampshire union leader and today it went to chris christie. you may be surprised. will it be a game-changer in new hampshire? the publisher of the union leader joins me next. .isn t it time to let the. .real you shine. .through? introducing otezla, apremilast. otezla is not an injection, or a cream. it s a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently.