Retired U.S. Air Force General Michael Hayden compared air strikes against ISIS without the commitment of ground troops to “casual sex,” suggesting that “it offers gratification without commitment.”
Appearing on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Friday, Hayden was asked by panelist Donny Deutsch to comment on Donald Trump’s “in-depth” anti-ISIS strategy of “we’re going to bomb the crap out of them.”
Hayden, former director of the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency, said, “Well, actually, we seem to be doing a bit of that.”
“I was just reading that we had B-1 strikes on the ISIS-controlled oil fields late last month. I mean that’s treating ISIS less as a movement, less as a terrorist organization, and more as a state,” explained Hayden. “We’re actually going after their infrastructure. And in a strange way, ISIS is a state, not just a movement. And so we can punish them with air strikes, but you know, I said about a year-and-a-half ago that air strikes without ground power is a lot like casual sex. It offers gratification without commitment. And frankly, we need more commitment here.”
Deutsch said, “Sign me up for that.” And host Mika Brzezinski said, “Oh my God.”