Sen. Ted Cruz went after Republicans and Hillary Clinton during Tuesday’s GOP debate for supporting toppling secular dictators in the Middle East, arguing that it has resulted in the growth ISIS.
Cruz argued that if the U.S. were to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad, that ISIS would take over in the region, following in the lead of what took place Libya and Iraq. Cruz also said that Republicans who supported such measures have “gotten distracted” from keeping the country safe.
“I believe in an America first foreign policy,” Cruz said. “Far too often, President Obama and Hillary Clinton, and unfortunately, more than a few Republicans have gotten distracted from the central focus of keeping this country safe.”
The Texas senator proceeded to pan the Obama and Clinton-led effort to topple Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, which some GOP senators supported. Cruz called the situation in the North African nation is a “terrorist war zone run by jihadists,” adding that the same situation took place in Egypt when Hosni Mubarak was overthrown and replaced by Muhammad Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood.
“We need to learn from history. These same leaders — Obama, Clinton and far too many Republicans want to topple Assad. Assad is a bad man. Gaddafi was a bad man. Mubarak had a terrible human rights record, but they were assisting us in…fighting Islamic terrorists,” Cruz said. “If we topple Assad, the result will be ISIS will takeover Syria, and it will worsen U.S. national security interests.”
CNN’s Wolf Blitzer moved on to question Sen. Marco Rubio, who supported intervention in Libya. Rubio said his reasoning was different than Clinton and Obama’s.
“To begin with, Muammar Gaddafi and the revolt against Gaddafi was not started by the United States. It was started by the Libyan people,” Rubio said. “And the reason I argued we needed to get involved is because he was going to get involved one way or another, and my argument then was proven true, and that is the longer that civil war took — the more militias would be formed, and the more unstable the country would be after the fact.”
Rubio defended his position, pointing to multiple terror attacks he supported, adding also that the former dictator only cooperated with the U.S. because he thought he would be the next dictator disposed in the wake of Saddam Hussein.
He also argued that the U.S. needs to continue to work with governments that may not be the kindest or a perfect democracy, mentioning Saudi Arabia and Jordan specifically. He did caution working with Assad though, calling him an “anti-American dictator” that needs to be ridded of, saying he “will not shed a tear.”
