Saying Americans are “appalled and disgusted” by terrorist attacks in Paris, Bernie Sanders declares that terrorism will not strike fear in American hearts.
Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders told a roaring crowd that “Every American has been appalled and disgusted by the attack against the people of Paris by the terrorist organization ISIS. I know all of us send our condolences to the families of those who lost loved ones. And we pray for the recovery of all those who were injured, many of them seriously.”
Speaking before an audience of more than 7,000 at the Cleveland State University’s Wolstein Center, Sanders stated that: “In my view, now is the time for developing a serious and effective approach to destroy ISIS. Now is not the time for taking cheap political advantage of this tragedy. Now is the time – as President Obama is trying to do – to unite the world in an organized campaign against ISIS that will eliminate the stain of ISIS from this world,” adding: “But let me also say that now is not the time for demagoguery and fear mongering. What terrorism is about is trying to instill terror and fear into the hearts of people. And we will not let that happen. We will not be terrorized or live in fear. During these difficult times, we will not succumb to Islamophobia. We will not turn our backs on the refugees who are fleeing Syria and Afghanistan. We will do what we do best and that is be Americans – fighting racism, fighting xenophobia, fighting fear.”
Sanders said the United States must learn from history, and he strongly disputed claims by Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus that the United States was projecting weakness on the global stage.
As many of you will remember, back in 2002 we had a president – President Bush. You remember President Bush? We had a president and he was very very tough, but not very smart. He and Dick Cheney and the whole lot of them, they were tough! And they said “we should invade Iraq.” We should do it virtually alone and the result was 6,700 brave men and women from our country dead, hundreds of thousands of our best young people coming home with injuries — physical and emotional. Many many hundreds of thousands of Iraqis dead and wounded. Huge instability in the entire region, and we are paying the price today for that instability and that chaos.
He continued, stressing that the focus on the Islamic State must not divert attention from critically important issues at home in the United States:
So I say, I say to my Republican colleagues “yeah we gotta be tough, but not stupid. Yes, we need to create a worldwide coalition that will defeat ISIS, but no – the United States of America must not be involved in perpetual warfare in the Middle East.” And let me say, let me say something else: there are those, including many Republicans, some of the media who think that because of this horrific attack that the only thing we should focus on is defeating ISIS. And what I say is “yes, we will lead the world in defeating ISIS but at the same time – we will rebuild the disappearing middle-class of this country.
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