Helpful advice when fighting ISIL

Prominent US conservatives meeting in DC offer president advice on how best to tackle ISIL’s advances in Middle East.

Jeb Bush speaks at Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland
Jeb Bush's approach to tackling ISIL used similar language to Obama in his criticism of the president's strategy [Reuters]

The most impassioned conservative activists in the US are gathered in Washington, DC, for a few days of networking and Obama-bashing.

The annual Conservative Political Action Conference also attracts would-be presidential contenders to throw red meat to the assembled.

One repeated talking point has been the perceived ineptitude of the Obama administration in its conduct of the war against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (or ISIL, or ISIS, or Daesh, depending on who you’re asking).

Below, is an incomplete list of how the speakers would better fight ISIL. Remember, most if not all will seek the nation’s highest office in 2016.

“You gotta hit ’em hard, you gotta hit ’em firm, and you can’t play games. You gotta go hard and fast and firm.”
Real estate mogul Donald Trump

“We need to put boots on the ground. 10,000 is what [retired Army] General Jack Keane testified to. 10,000 to coordinate air strikes, to provide advice, training and intelligence.”
Former Senator Rick Santorum

“We want our military leaders to do whatever it takes not to degrade, contain, or expel, but to hunt down and kill these radical Islamic terrorists. That’s how you know you’ve won a war.”
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal

“Oh, the naive Obama State Department. They say we can’t kill our way out of war. Really? Tell that to the Nazis. Oh wait, you can’t because they’re dead. We killed them.”
2008 Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin

“If I can take on 100,000 [union] protestors, I can do the same across the world.”
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker
(For more on this comment see here)

“Listen, that is precisely how we win this: We kill the terrorist leaders before they kill us.”
Texas Senator Ted Cruz

“We need to be engaged in the world, build a coalition to isolate and put ISIS around a noose [sic] and take ’em out. And that can be done not by ourselves unilaterally, that has to be done with American leadership.”
Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush
(If this sounds familiar it’s because it’s practically the exact same language President Obama uses…)

Source: Al Jazeera