WASHINGTON — The front-runner to become the next speaker of the US House of Representatives , in a hawkish foreign policy speech on Monday, offered a preview of his foreign policy views Monday in a hawkish speech that criticized President Obama’s “weakness” on the same day the president spoke at the United Nations.
“The America we need and deserve is strong, respected, appreciated and feared,” said Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said. “A country where the noble cause of freedom inspires millions of people across the world to stand up, speak out, and fight tyranny and injustice in the pursuit of individual liberty and human rights.”
Voicing some familiar Republican tropes and criticisms of the administration, McCarthy offered his the first major policy speech since House Speaker Leader John Boehner on Friday announced plans to step down. as House speaker. Friday. McCarthy spoke at the launch party for the John Hay Initiative’s new book, a series of essays by conservative foreign policy heavyweights aimed at the next president.
On the Russia-Ukraine conflict, McCarthy cast Russia’s aggression as the result of the president’s indecisiveness and ineffectiveness, calling it “the greatest challenge to European security and stability since World War II.” In response, he said the US must provide Ukraine with lethal aid, and sell US oil and gas to allies who would otherwise be reliant on Russian fuel.
“We’ve rolled out the red carpet to Putin’s region ambitions,” McCarthy said, adding later: “My answer? Stop letting Putin set the agenda. Stop turning a blind eye to Russian aggression.”
McCarthy blamed the rise of the Islamic State , also known as ISIS or ISIL, on the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq, and called for “an entirely new policy,” in which the US marginalizes the influence of the Islamic State while deploying limited numbers of US special forces “on the ground and outside the wire” to call in airstrikes and support Iraqi Army, Sunni and Kurdish fighting units. and called “for an entirely new policy,” in which the US marginalizes influence, and limited numbers of US special forces personnel on the ground and outside the wire to call in airstrikes and support Iraqi Army, Sunni and Kurdish fighting units.
McCarthy called for a no-fly zone over northern Syria, a “safe zone” for refugees, and “rebooted” Syrian rebels who would take on the Islamic State, al-Qaida affiliates and the Syrian government of President Bashar Assad regime.
Criticizing the Iran deal, McCarthy called for tougher sanctions against the country Iran, and said the next president would be within his rights to abandon it. The US, he said, should stand with Israel and other regional allies whom he said express “behind closed doors that the Iran deal was the worst decision America could make.”
“The people who know Iran best trust them the least,” McCarthy said.
McCarthy called for a war against radical Islam.
“One thing is clear: Politically correct speech will not defeat this enemy,” he said.
Email: jgould@defensenews.com
Twitter: @reporterjoe
