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Ron DeSantis on War & Peace |
DESANTIS: I don't support a draft. Our recruiting is at the lowest level since the end of the Vietnam War when they got rid of the draft. I think the way you solve that problem is to inspire young people to want to join. I do think when they see commander-in-chief hold the brass accountable, because no one's been held accountable for Afghanistan, not one person has been held accountable for one of the worst military debacles in American history. When they see us getting rid of some of the social stuff and the woke ideology, saying, "no, it's about mission first," and you're going to be promoted based on merit, that, I think, inspires people to want to join. You know, when you join the military, you want to know that the people in charge of both the civilian and military levels are only going to pursue the mission. And they're not going to let these other considerations cloud that out.
DESANTIS: We've got to support Israel in word and in deed. And they need to be able to finish the job. This is a time to recognize that they've suffered the most murder of Jews since the Holocaust. Hamas wants a second Holocaust. They want to annihilate the state of Israel. We also have a disagreement. When Gov. Haley was at the U.N., she supported the idea of a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs. The problem with that is the Palestinian Arabs don't recognize Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state. So doing a two-state solution doesn't create something that's going to lead to a lasting peace. It creates a stepping stone for Israel's destruction. So under no circumstances as president am I going to pressure Israel to risk their security to do a so called two-state solution. She was wrong when she embraced that.
DESANTIS: After the attacks against Israel, anyone with half a brain knows Iran is behind this. They fund Hamas. They fund Hezbollah. We did a special session of the legislature down in Florida. As the 14th largest economy in the world, we expanded sanctions against Iran. The root of this is Biden came into office and he relaxed the sanctions on Iran. They've had massive amounts of money flooding into their country. They take that money and they use it to fund jihad around the world. I would never put our troops in harm's way, like Biden is doing in the Middle East, without defending them with everything they got. If you harm a hair on the head of one of our servicemembers, you are going to have hell to pay.
DeSantis: This administration is trying to hobble Israel from being able to defend itself. They have a right to eliminate Hamas and win a total and complete victory so that they never have to deal with this again. Hamas wants nothing less than a second Holocaust, they would wipe off every single Jew off the map. They would destroy the state of Israel if we could. Look, I served in Iraq back in the day. I'm the only one running for president that served in the military, I understand that part of the world. It's not the best part of the world. We do have troops there that Biden is leaving basically as sitting ducks and you have the Iranians that are attacking these troops and he's responding with basically pinpricks. If you harm an American service member, you're going to have hell to pay when I'm president.
Ron DeSantis: We will be able to deter that from happening. I think that's the important thing, we need a strategy of denial so that we're deterring [China's President] Xi's ambitions.
Q: What if it doesn't work?
DeSantis: It's going to work. Taiwan's an ally. We have longstanding American policy [known as "strategic ambiguity," where the US doesn't promise to send US troops to Taiwan, or not-- OTI], and we will follow that. But here's the thing, Taiwan is important because if China's able to break out of this first island chain, they're going to dominate commerce in the entire Indo-Pacific. They will use that to export authoritarianism all around the world, including here in the US. Deterring China's ambitions is the number one national security task that I will do as president and we will succeed. The 21st century needs to be an American century. We cannot let it be a Chinese century.
Gov. Ron DeSantis: I would be telling Bibi, "Finish the job once and for all with these butchers, Hamas, their terrorists, their massacring innocent people." They would wipe every Jew off the globe if they could. He cannot live with that threat right by his country. That Hamas should release every hostage and they should unconditionally surrender. We will stand with Israel in word and in deed in public and in private. As governor, I actually did something about it. Biden's neglect has been atrocious. We had Floridians that were over there after the attack. He left them stranded. They couldn't get flights out. So I sent planes over to Israel and I brought back over 700 people to safety. So there’s a difference between words and deeds; we acted and we save lives.
DESANTIS: It is in our interest to the end this war, and that's what I will do as president. We are not going to have a blank check. We will not have U.S. troops. We are going to make the Europeans do what they need to do.
Meanwhile, our own country is being invaded. We don't even have control of our own territory. We have got to defend the American people before we even worry about all these other things. These guys in Washington, D.C. don't care about the American people. They don't care about the communities being overrun because of this border. So as commander-in-chief, I will defend this country's sovereignty.
U.N. Ambassador Nikki HALEY: But it's not a territorial dispute. It's never been a territorial dispute.
Vivek RAMASWAMY: I would not support it.
Gov. Ron DESANTIS: Europe needs to step up and do their job. I will have Europe pull their weight. Right now they're not doing that. I think our support should be contingent on them doing it.
RAMASWAMY: I would not. And I think that this is disastrous, that we are protecting against an invasion across somebody else's border, when we should use those same military resources to prevent across the invasion of our own southern border. We are driving Russia further into China's hands. The Russia-China alliance is the single greatest threat we face.
Congressional Summary: H Amdt 1141 authorizes training and equipping appropriately vetted elements of the Syrian opposition; requires detailed reports (including progress reports) on the plan, vetting process, and procedures for monitoring unauthorized end-use of provided training and equipment; and permits the Secretary of Defense to accept foreign contributions.
Statement in support by Rep. Buck McKeon (R-CA-25): I offer an amendment to HJ.124 to provide authority to train and equip elements of the Syrian opposition in order to defend the Syrian people from attacks by ISIL and to protect the US and our friends and allies. ISIL is a clear and present threat to our allies across the Middle East and to the US. The President has requested the authority to train and equip nongovernmental entities fighting in the non-U.S.-led operation in Syria. There is no doubt that any strategy to defeat ISIL must contain a Syrian component. I believe that there are options to defeat ISIL in Syria short of a major U.S.-led combat operation. But the window of opportunity is closing.
Statement in opposition by Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY-13): I don`t see where the President needs authority to do what we are about to allow him to do because of a threat to the US. I haven`t come close, in convincing [myself or my constituents] that training people overseas, that we don`t know, to fight ISIS is in their best national interest. Already we have lost trillions of dollars and over 6,000 lives in this area, and I don`t think we have yet to declare war. This honorable body [should] determine whether or not any enemy is a threat to the US and that we are going to go to war with them, that we should force every American to evaluate whether or not they believe that they are prepared to make sacrifices.
Legislative outcome: Amendment passed House 273-156-9 on 17-Sep-2014.