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Carly Fiorina on War & PeaceRepublican primary challenger and former CEO |
FIORINA: I would not be talking to Vladimir Putin right now, because we are speaking to him from a position of weakness brought on by this administration, so, I wouldn't talk to him for awhile, but, I would do this: I would start rebuilding the Sixth Fleet right under his nose, rebuilding the missile defense program in Poland right under his nose. I would conduct very aggressive military exercises in the Baltic States so that he understood we would protect our NATO allies. And I might also put in a few more thousand troops into Germany, not to start a war, but to make sure that Putin understand that the United States of America will stand with our allies
Q: Gov. Bush suggests a no-fly zone in Syria while Donald Trump says no. Your opinion?
FIORINA: Gov. Bush is correct. We must have a no fly zone in Syria because Russia cannot tell the United States of America where and when to fly our planes.
FIORINA: Well, first of all, it's recognition that you cannot have a successful bombing campaign without people on the ground telling you where to place the bomb. So, he's sort of come to reality. On the other hand, it's too little too late. I think this is a reflection of the reality, that when America does not act, when we do not lead as we have not the last three years under this president, our options become very constrained and the situation becomes more dangerous.ÿI'm glad he did this, but we still do not have a strategy in Syria. We do not have a strategy to deal with ISIS.
FIORINA: Well, you know, the president has said he doesn't believe in no-fly zones, but no fly zones are very effective. They have been effective in the past and we need to establish one. We need to make it crystal clear to Vladimir Putin that our jets will fly when and where they want, that our troops cannot be threatened in any way by Russia. And it is why, as president of the United States, in addition to having a strategy in Syria and for ISIS, I would also be rebuilding the Sixth Fleet, right under Vladimir Putin's nose, rebuilding the missile defence program in Poland, so he must see strength and resolve from the United States of America.
FIORINA: We could rebuild the Sixth Fleet [the US' main force in the Mediterranean Sea]. I will. We haven't. We could rebuild the missile defense program. We haven't. I will. We could also, to Senator Rubio's point, give the Egyptians what they've asked for, which is intelligence. Bombs and materiel. We have not supplied it.We could arm the Kurds. They've been asking us for three years. All of this is within our control.
I think the Jordanians, the Saudis, the Kuwaitis, the Kurds and the Egyptians are all fighting ISIS, as we speak, on the ground. They know this is their fight. Yes, they need leadership, resolve support and material from us. We haven't provided any of it. And if we did, it will make a big difference.
PERRY [Video clip]: I will tell you one thing: I would whole lot rather had Carly Fiorina over there doing our negotiation than John Kerry. Maybe we would've gotten a deal where we didn't give everything away.
Q: Are you OK with us being on their side?
FIORINA: Yeah. Sometimes it's a complicated situation, but some things are black and white. On day one in the Oval Office, I would make two phone calls. The first one would be to the Israeli Prime Minister that we will stand with the State of Israel. The second will be to the supreme leader of Iran, and the message is this: Until you open every nuclear and every military facility to full, open, anytime/anywhere inspections, we are going to make it as difficult as possible for you to move money around.
FIORINA: I would hold a Camp David summit with our Arab allies, not to talk them into this lousy deal with Iran, but to say to them, "what is it that you need to defeat ISIL?" You know, Obama has presented the American people with a false choice every time: "It's what I've done or not done, or it's war." It is a false choice. King Abdullah of Jordan has been asking for bombs and materiel. We have not provided them. He has gone to China. The Kurds have been asking us to arm them for three years. We haven't done so. The Egyptians have asked us to share intelligence. We're not doing it. We have Arab allies. They are not perfect. But they need to see leadership, support and resolve from the United States of America, and we can help them defeat ISIS.
In order to get Russia and China on board, President Obama gutted the sanctions that were once promised to be "crippling' and later downgraded to "biting.' Today's sanctions are so watered down that Russian Prime Minister Putin vowed they would "not put Iran's leadership or the Iranian people into difficulty.'
If Iran's leadership is not put "into difficulty' by these sanctions, American interests and those of our allies will be. This is the fourth round of U.N. sanctions on Iran, yet Iran continues to work toward a nuclear weapon.
The United States Congress can impose its own sanctions on Iran, real sanctions that would cause Iran's leadership great difficulty.
FIORINA: I certainly agree that we need to be extremely concerned about Iran and I believe that we have lost a year to President Obama's failed engagement policy. The time has come for us to impose crippling sanctions unilaterally if necessary. We should be cutting off all access for Iran's leaders and for the Iran Revolutionary guard core to financial institutions to credit, to travel. We should be limiting Iran's imports for fined petroleum. And we should also stand very firmly with the brave men and women in Iran who are challenging the repressive Government and take advantage of the fact that there is a historic split in the theocracy in Iran--the first time in 25 years that that's happened.
FIORINA: HP has been in compliance with all US law. These accusations that we, that HP, did something unlawful are false. The real issue in Iran is how do we stop Iran's never-ending march towards a nuclear weapon? I believe we need to stop talking now and start acting. Congress should impose sanctions against shipment of refined petroleum into Iran.
Q: Chuck Devore, your campaign was the first to bring this to light?
DEVORE: We are not talking about simply compliance with obscure export controls. Carly Fiorina as CEO of HP could have severed relationship with Redington Gulf [the HP intermediary shipping to Iran], as HP has done in the early part of 2009 after a very damaging article came out in the Boston Globe. When she calls for sanctions against Iran, which certainly we can agree with, the hypocritical thing is that she participated as a CEO in undermining those very sanctions.
FIORINA: The peace process ultimately must include a two-state solution. However, I do not support the notion that Jerusalem should be a divided capital Tom Campbell apparently does.
CAMPBELL: No, that's not true.
FIORINA: Well, you were one of only 34 people in the entire House of Representatives in 1990 to vote against Jerusalem being the undivided capital of Israel.
CAMPBELL: The motion was a political maneuver to embarrass President George H. W. Bush.
FIORINA: That's a really interesting, and frankly intellectually contorted explanation. The reality is, 33 other congress people agreed with you, everyone else disagreed. The vast majority of Congress people were not embarrassed by this supposedly diplomatic maneuver.
CAMPBELL: The Prime Minister of Israel at the time was prepared to discuss a solution that involved as shared capital in Jerusalem.
Faith2Action.org is "the nation's largest network of pro-family groups." They provide election resources for each state, including Voter Guides and Congressional Scorecards excerpted here. The Faith2Action survey summarizes candidate stances on the following topic: 'Set a timetable for withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan '