MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript: Islamic State Strategy Funding
Interview
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SCHULTZ: And joining us tonight, Senator Bernie Sanders, Independent from Vermont.
Senator, good to have you with us and I know a lot of people appreciate you speaking up so we don`t get amnesia and we figure out exactly where this all started and where it came from. But Senator, what do we do now? If Senator McCain is correct in ISIS is winning, does there have to be a reevaluation in your opinion?
SANDERS: Well, it depends on what you mean by reevaluation. Here is the issue to me. I believe from the bottom of my heart that there is no way that the United States can or should lead this effort.
You have countries like Saudi Arabia sitting right, sharing the border with Iraq which has the fourth largest defense budget in the world more than U.K., more than France. They have 200,000 soldiers in their army.Ed, where are these guys? They have a major air force. You have Turkey sitting over there. If this becomes a war between the United States and ISIS, the West and the East Christianity and Islam, it`s a losing proposition. It is what ISIS wants.
This is, as I understand it, a war for the soul of Islam and if that is the case, the Muslim countries in that area have got to stand up and they have got to fight. They have got to provide the ground troops.
Should the United States, the U.K., France be supportive, provide weapons? Yes, but should we be putting ground troops in there getting involved that what I`ve see as a quagmire, perpetual warfare in the Middle East, I think that that would be a disaster.
SCHULTZ: Senator, clearly there is no short schedule here whatsoever and there`s no short manual what exactly is going to be needed to remedy this whole situation. But if we gone as far as we can go as you see it as a country, as far as the airstrikes, as far as the equipment, as far as the training on the ground, is this it?
SANDERS: Well, I think we should be prepared to provide the weapons and the training that those countries in the Middle East need in order to fight ISIS which is a horrible and dangerous organization. But I am adamantly opposed to us having combat troops in that area.
The other point that I would make Ed, which nobody is talking about is, you know, if we get involved, we`re talking about tens and tens of billions of dollars. We spent over $3 trillion on the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Where is that money going to come from?
Our Republican colleagues are pretty clear. They`re not going to raise taxes on the wealthy. You know how we`re going to pay for this war, by cuts in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, education and nutrition. That`s how this war is going to be paid for.
So the bottom line for me -- and this is a difficult situation, and Obama is trying but the word has got to get out that those countries in the region who are in fact are threatened daily by ISIS; Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan, they have got to get into this fight.
We can supply the air attacks working with other countries but they`re going to have to have the troops on the ground.
SCHULTZ: And Senator, aren`t we less than 60 days away from having that budgetary discussion about possibly shutting down the government. Where is this going to go before the New Year?
SANDERS: Now, that`s a good question. That is a very good question. And I think as you know that at a time when we have massive wealth and inequality in this country, where the wealthiest people are doing phenomenally well while the middle class disappears, the time is now to ask the wealthiest people and largest corporations to start paying their fair share of taxes so we could rebuild our crumbling infrastructure and create the jobs that we need and make sure the government services are not cut for those who need them.
SCHULTZ: All right. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, good to have you with us tonight, sir. I appreciate it so much.
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