Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer slammed the Obama administration’s foreign policy Wednesday night on “Special Report,” saying the “disinterest” and “lethargy” President Obama shows toward Jordan and its impending fight against ISIS is “simply astonishing.”
The conservative commentator also panned the Obama administration’s “coalition,” calling it “a joke.” He warned that not helping Jordan in its current situation with ISIS could beset a “huge setback” for the U.S.
KRAUTHAMMER: The disinterest, the lethargy of this president, the lassitude with which he pursues this war which he declared himself is simply astonishing. You know, he hasn’t armed the Syrian rebels, the ones who are pro-Western. They have been withering on the vine. They’re being wiped out. The weapons that the Kurds have been desperately needing have not been arriving. Jordan, which is our staunchest ally in the area, is short of weaponry, short of munitions and it takes forever for that to get through. It shouldn’t even be an issue. A president steps in and says to the State Department and Defense Department “I want this done.” Nixon did an airlift in the middle of the October war, the ’73 war in which he airlifted munitions to the Middle East overnight.
This president is not interested and to go out of area in Ukraine. For a year the Ukrainians and Americans in Congress have been asking him to equip them. What is he doing? he seems completely uninterested. He’s grudgingly doing what he has to do because of the beheading of two Americans that drove him into this. The idea that Jordan, the smallest, the most fragile, the most isolated country in the region should be leading this campaign rather than the United States is simply astonishing.
And the talk of the 60-member coalition is a joke. I saw on the list Belgium. You know, that’s really the heart of this coalition. Jordan is out there alone and we could suffer a huge setback if it’s not helped from the outside, meaning us and the other states in the region.