Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Sunday said radical Islam is overrunning the Middle East under President Obama’s watch.
Graham argued that Obama’s foreign policy helps terrorist groups like the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) grow unchecked.
“Obama doesn’t know what he’s doing,” Graham told host John Catsimatidis on “The Cats Roundtable” New York’s AM 970.
“Radical Islam is running wild in the Mid-East,” he said. “I have never been more worried about an attack on our homeland than I am right now.”
Graham vowed he would relentlessly destroy radical Islamist groups should he take the White House next year.
“If I get to be president, I’m going to focus on putting radical Islam back in a box and nailing it shut,” the 2016 GOP presidential candidate said.
Graham blamed Obama’s actions in critical events in the Middle East for the rise of ISIS and similar extremist groups.
“He left Iraq too soon,” Graham said of the Obama administration’s withdrawal of U.S. military forces there.
“His failure to deal with Assad three years ago has allowed ISIL to come back,” he added, citing Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and an alternate acronym for ISIS.
Graham promised he would expand America’s military forces and return them to the Middle East as a counter against ISIS’s influence there.
“My number one focus would be to rebuild our military that is being gutted and then send some of our soldiers back to Iraq to work with the Iraqi army to degrade and destroy ISIL not just in Iraq but in Syria too,” he said.
The South Carolina lawmaker also criticized the Obama administration’s ongoing nuclear talks with Iran.
Obama hopes that Iran will slow or stop its nuclear arms research in exchange for economic sanctions relief.
“These nuclear negotiations with Iran scare the heck out of me,” Graham said. “We’d be nuts to give the Iranians more money until they change their behavior.”
“At the end of the day, a nuclear deal with Iran has to be airtight because they lie and cheat,” he added.
The U.S. and its allies are racing to meet a July 7 final deadline for a deal with Iran.
Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia are aiding the U.S. on its side of the bargaining table this weekend during meetings in Vienna.
A deal was originally due by June 30, but that deadline was extended when it became clear a compromise was not in reach.
The Hill, 5 July 2015
