Sen. Ted Cruz criticized Obama’s anti-Islamic State strategy as a “photo-op foreign policy” during Tuesday night’s GOP presidential debate, and called for more punishing air power against the terror group.
The Texas Republican made comparisons to the first Gulf War, where U.S. planes “carpet bombed” the enemy for about a month. By comparison, Cruz said the current campaign against the Islamic State is launching only about 15-30 airstrikes a day.
“It is photo-op foreign policy. We need to use overwhelming air power, we need to be arming the Kurds, we need to be fighting and killing ISIS where they are,” Cruz said during the debate hosted by CNN in Las Vegas.
Analysts have said that untargeted bombing in the region would cause serious issues, especially when the Islamic State operates among a civilian population as protection. The administration has put restrictive rules of engagement in place to avoid civilian casualties.
Asked if he would bomb the city of Raqqa, the self-declared capital of the Islamic State’s territory that is still home to civilians, Cruz said he would bomb where the Islamic State is, while also saying he would not level their headquarters city.
“You would carpet bomb where ISIS is. Not a city, but the location of the troops,” Cruz said. “The object isn’t to level a city, the object is to kill the ISIS terrorists.”
