Sanders: Include Iran in Coalition Against ISIS

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders suggested on Sunday that the United States should engage in talks with Iran and Russia to defeat ISIS.

“We have different points of views, but Russia has got to join us. We are concerned about Iran, but Iran has to join us. We have concerns about Saudi Arabia, but Saudi Arabia has to join us,” Sanders said during a speech at Simpson College in Iowa on Sunday. “If all over the world these attacks are taking place, the world has got to come together.”

This is the first time Sanders has taken a stance on dealing with the growing threat of ISIS though he did not specify what the talks and coordinated efforts would contain.

Following his speech, the Democratic presidential hopeful argued that it is possible to “destroy ISIS” when working with adversarial countries.

“When you have Russia, when you have Iran, when you have Saudi Arabia, when you have Western Europe, when you have those countries united in the fight against ISIS, we will destroy ISIS,” he said. “Now what I have said is that I think the folks that have got to be on the ground are the people who are fighting for the soul of Islam. That is not American troops; that is troops from the region. They can’t sit it out, they have got to be on the ground. We should be supportive. Very supportive.”

Republican presidential candidate took an opposite stance on Monday. “The idea that we’re going to support the forces that support Hamas and Hezbollah and destabilizing forces in the region, I just reject out of hand,” Bush said during an interview MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program. “That’s part of the problem with the Obama administration; They think that mullahs go quietly into the night. They don’t.”

Instead, Bush suggested the United States should be allying with “European and traditional Arab countries” for an aggressive military campaign on ISIS targets in the region, including the deployment of ground troops. “We should lead to destroy ISIS,” he said. “You do it with massive force; you do it with the stated objective of total victory. And then you need to forge political consensus to create a stable Syria and stable Iraq.”

“Then we leave,” the brother of former President George W. Bush added.

Last week, Ben Carson said he would implement a no-fly zone in Syria, and if Russia violated it, he would be willing to shoot down their planes. “We have to have a plan, we have to be willing to enforce that plan, and if we continue to back down, we will become a paper tiger,” Carson said during an interview with Yahoo News’ Katie Couric on Sunday.

The retired neurosurgeon said were he president he would tell Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit in Turkey, “We are a peaceful nation. But we are not a marshmallow.”