Joe Biden on War & Peace : Mar 7, 2024
Contain Iran; degrade the Houthis; include Saudi Arabia

Creating stability in the Middle East also means containing the threat posed by Iran. That's why I build a coalition of more than a dozen countries to defend international shipping and freedom of navigation in the Red Sea. I've ordered strikes to degrade the Houthis capability and defend US forces in the region. As commander in chief, I will not hesitate to direct further measures to protect our people and our military personnel.

Ron DeSantis on Energy & Oil : Jan 10, 2024
Choose the Marcellus Shale over the Mullahs

HALEY (on DeSantisLies.com): DeSantis long opposed ethanol before he decided to run for president. In 2015, DeSantis introduced legislation to repeal the Renewable Fuel Standard, and cosponsored five pieces of legislation to repeal it.

Vivek Ramaswamy on Immigration : Dec 6, 2023
Real enemy is Deep State via the Great Replacement Theory

Why am I the only person on the stage at least who can say that January 6th now does look like it was an inside job, that the government lied to us for 20 years about Saudi Arabia's involvement in 9/11, that the Great Replacement Theory is not some grand right-wing conspiracy theory, but a basic statement of the Democratic Party's platform, that the 2020 election was indeed stolen by big tech, that the 2016 election, the one that Trump won for sure, was also one that was stolen from him by the National Security Establishment that actually put out the Trump Russia collusion hoax that they knew was false?

There's a reason why I'm the only person on this stage who can say these things. That's what it's going to take.

Joe Biden on Free Trade : Sep 19, 2023
India/Middle East/Europe connection will have impact

Vivek Ramaswamy on War & Peace : Aug 23, 2023
FactCheck: Cut aid to Israel in 2028; it'll be unneeded then

Gov. Nikki HALEY: He wants to stop funding Israel.

RAMASWAMY: False. I will lead Abraham Accords 2.0. I will partner with Israel to make sure Iran never is nuclear-armed.

FactCheck from The Jerusalem Post, Aug. 23, 2023:In June, while campaigning in NH, Ramaswamy suggested that he would be open to ending aid to Israel as "part of a broader disengagement with the Middle East." He later walked back those comments. But last week, he told podcaster Russell Brand that he does want to end US aid to Israel in 2028, the year when the current US commitment to provide $3.8 billion annually to Israel expires: "Come 2028, that additional aid won’t be necessary in order to still have the kind of stability that we’d actually have in the Middle East by having Israel more integrated with its partners," he said, [offering to] spearhead extending the Abraham Accords with Indonesia and Oman.

Vivek Ramaswamy on War & Peace : Aug 23, 2023
Abraham Accords 2.0; I love the Iron Dome

Vivek RAMASWAMY: False. You've been pushing this lie all week.

HALEY: But you want to go and defund Israel. You want to give Taiwan to China.

RAMASWAMY: So our relationship with Israel will be stronger by the end of my first term. But it's not a client relationship. It is a friendship. And you know what friends do? Friends help each other stand on their own two feet. So I will lead Abraham Accords 2.0. I will partner with Israel to make sure Iran never is nuclear-armed.

But you know what I love about Israel? And I have been there probably in the last 10 years more than most people on this stage. You know what I love about them? I love their border policies. I love their tough-on-crime policies. I love that they have a national identity and an Iron Dome to protect their homeland. And so, yes, I want to learn from the friends that we're supporting.

Nikki Haley on Energy & Oil : Jul 30, 2023
There can be solar and wind, but you can't do it tomorrow

Donald Trump on War & Peace : Apr 1, 2023
Abraham Accords end the centrality of Arab-Israeli conflict

Foreign aid must advance the Abraham Accords. Increased trade and investment between Israel and its Arab neighbors represent the most effective path toward reducing poverty, fostering the emergence of a middle class, and solidifying peace.

Joe Biden on Foreign Policy : Mar 2, 2021
No punishment for Saudis killing Jamal Khashoggi

PROMISE BROKEN: (A.P., 3/2/21): The Biden administration made clear it would forgo sanctions or any other major penalty against Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the Khashoggi killing, even after a U.S. intelligence report concluded the prince ordered it. Ultimately, Biden administration officials said, U.S. interests in maintaining relations with Saudi Arabia forbid making a pariah of a young prince who may go on to rule the kingdom for decades.

OnTheIssues ANALYSIS: Biden was criticized for giving Bin Salman a pass, limiting sanctions to underlings carrying out his orders--but Biden played "realpolitik."

Kanye West on Foreign Policy : Sep 16, 2020
Praises Mideast peace treaties; expects Israel-Saudi next

Donald Trump on Foreign Policy : Sep 8, 2020
Unite moderate Arab countries to isolate & contain Iran

Bernie Sanders on War & Peace : Jan 14, 2020
Passed bipartisan War Powers Act to stop Yemen war

V.P. Joe BIDEN: I said 13 years ago it was a mistake to give the president the authority to go to war if, in fact, he couldn't get inspectors into Iraq to stop what--thought to be the attempt to get a nuclear weapon. It was a mistake, and I acknowledged that. But the man who also argued against that war, Barack Obama, picked me to be his vice president. And once we were elected, he asked me to end that war.

Joe Biden on Foreign Policy : Nov 20, 2019
Punish senior Saudi leaders; make them the pariah they are

BIDEN: Khashoggi was murdered on the order of the crown prince. I would make it clear we were not going to sell more weapons to them, we were going to make them the pariah that they are. There's very little social redeeming value in the present government in Saudi Arabia.

KLOBUCHAR: We need a new foreign policy in this country, and that means renewing our relationships with our allies. It means rejoining international agreements. It means reasserting our American values. When the president did not stand up the way he should have to that killing and that dismemberment of a journalist with an American newspaper, that sent a signal to all dictators across the country that was OK, and that's wrong.

Joe Biden on Foreign Policy : Oct 10, 2019
US should promote LGBTQ rights worldwide; stop aid if needed

BIDEN: In my State Department, we will have a special office that's devoted directly to promoting LGBTQ rights around the world. I would curtail aid to countries that engage in that kind of behavior.

Q: Saudi Arabia?

BIDEN: Saudi Arabia, same thing.

Mike Pence on Energy & Oil : Sep 14, 2019
AdWatch 1990: "Thanks, America, for buying so much Arab Oil"

On October 4, 1990, Pence let er' rip. "My people would like to thank you Americans for buying so much oil," Pence's Arab says. Then he clasps his ring fingers together, shakes them in the air, and exclaims ,"Oh thank you Phil Sharp!"

"Congressional candidate Mike Pence's television ad with the phony Arab is so bad it's perversely delightful," the Indianapolis Star declared. But protests crept up. Pence acted like nothing was wrong: "If I felt the ad was racist, or I felt it was playing to stereotypes, I wasn't going to run it. So, they made sure the dignity of Arabs was preserved. It does not invite you to laugh at Arabs, but it does invite you to laugh."

Marianne Williamson on Foreign Policy : Aug 16, 2019
Stronger position on Saudi Arabia; end involvement in Yemen

Marianne Williamson on War & Peace : Jul 28, 2019
We're spending $350B supporting genocidal war against Yemen

WILLIAMSON: Moral leadership. Our grandparents would be rolling over in their graves to see something like, for the sake of a $350 billion-dollar arms deal over the next ten years, we are giving aerial support to a genocidal war that Saudi Arabia is waging against Yemen. I'm not saying that America was ever perfect, but there was a time on this planet when other nations, and Americans ourselves, saw that we at least tried to stand for de

Bernie Sanders on War & Peace : Jun 27, 2019
Used War Powers Act to get US out of Saudi-Yemen war

V.P. Joe BIDEN: I was responsible for getting 150,000 combat troops out of Iraq. I also think we should not have combat troops in Afghanistan. It's long overdue. It should end.

Sen. Bernie SANDERS: One of the differences that Joe and I have in our record is Joe voted for that war, I helped lead the opposition to that war, which was a total disaster. I helped lead the effort for the first time to utilize the War Powers Act to get the United States out of the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen, which is the most horrific humanitarian disaster on Earth. Let me be very clear. I will do everything I can to prevent a war with Iran, which would be far worse than disastrous war with Iraq.

Bernie Sanders on War & Peace : Jun 23, 2019
No support of Saudis against Iran; it's a never-ending war

Bernie Sanders on War & Peace : Jun 2, 2019
US shouldn't favor Saudis or Iran; broker diplomatic answer

Bernie Sanders on Foreign Policy : May 19, 2019
Even-handed Mideast policy; open to moving Jerusalem embassy

A: I can't give you a definitive answer, but yeah. Whether it is Iran and Saudi Arabia, whether it is Israel and the Palestinians, the United States needs to bring people together, needs an even handed policy. We'll take that one step at a time. We are the most-powerful country on Earth. Let's bring people together and try to bring peace.

Donald Trump on War & Peace : Apr 17, 2019
Vetoed resolution withdrawing support for Yemen war

The Constitution gives war declaration powers to Congress, not the president.

Bernie Sanders on War & Peace : Apr 17, 2019
Led bipartisan War Powers resolution against Yemen war

Passing the War Powers Resolution, an effort led by Bernie Sanders and Mike Lee in the Senate and Ro Khanna in the House, took immense political capital. It was the result of progressive antiwar activism and a rare coalition of lawmakers to claw back war-approving authority from the president. The final resolution passed in the Senate with the support of seven Republicans, and in the House with the support of 16 Republicans, including some of Trump's closest conservative allies.

Marianne Williamson on Foreign Policy : Apr 14, 2019
Return moral principles to our foreign policy

Bernie Sanders on War & Peace : Feb 19, 2019
End Syrian conflict; pull out U.S. troops

• Foreign Policy: Use diplomacy to end Syrian conflict. Pull out troops, but in different way from Trump. Cut U.S. support in the conflict in Yemen, hold the Saudi crown prince "accountable" for crimes.
• Sanders would pull U.S. troops from Syria, but said he would do it in a different, less "erratic" way than Trump recently announced. He believes diplomacy with Russia and Iran can turn things around in Syria.
• He also believes the president did not have the right to launch airstrikes against the Assad regime and that war powers must get more rigorous oversight and/or approval from Congress.
• A longtime anti-war activist, Sanders voted against the Iraq war resolution in 2002.
• He regularly called for the U.S. to withdraw troops from Afghanistan and Iraq.
• In both Afghanistan and Syria, Sanders has said that he believes the U.S. should remain involved, though with no ground troop presence.

Kamala Harris on War & Peace : Feb 11, 2019
Opposes US support for Saudi military action in Yemen

Bernie Sanders on War & Peace : Feb 5, 2019
Our Saudi allies give US-made weapons to Al Qaeda in Yemen

How can the President say nothing about Yemen, where the worst humanitarian crisis in the world is currently taking place, brought on by a Saudi-led war that the United States is supporting? Just yesterday, a CNN report detailed how our Saudi and Emirati allies have been giving U.S.-made weapons to Al Qaeda-linked fighters in Yemen, and have also fallen into the hands of Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. This war is a disaster, which is why the Senate passed my resolution last December calling on the president to end our support for it, and why colleagues in both the House and Senate re-introduced that legislation last week. Yet the president did not even mention it.

Tulsi Gabbard on War & Peace : Jan 14, 2019
End US support for Saudi-led conflict in Yemen

• In general, Gabbard believes the U.S. should be less involved in foreign conflicts and have a smaller troop presence in many places around the world. She has specifically called on the U.S. military to pull out of Afghanistan.
• Gabbard also opposes US military presence and action in Syria.
• The congresswoman believes U.S. action around the world often benefits extremists. She also has argued that Democrats and others should not back away from the term "Islamic extremists."
• Gabbard has said the US is complicit in a humanitarian disaster by giving support to the Saudis, because they have cut off aid to large parts of the Yemeni population while battling rebels there.
• She also sent a controversial tweet that was highly critical of Trump following news that the U.S. was standing by Saudi leadership despite intelligence implicating the kingdom's crown prince in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
• Gabbard believes Saudi Arabia is a hub of anti-Western extremism.

Bernie Sanders on War & Peace : Nov 25, 2018
Withdraw US support for Saudi-led war in Yemen

SANDERS: I do. When we brought this up in March we ended up with 44 votes--only 5 Republicans. I think we now have a chance to get a majority of the Senate. I think people are looking at the horrific humanitarian disaster now taking place in Yemen. There was a recent report that over the last number of years some 75,000 children have died of starvation. This is a country dealing with cholera, with a terrible level of famine. This war was never authorized by the US Congress in violation of our constitution. And you got the Khashoggi incident which says that we have a Saudi government led by a despotic ruler who killed a political opponent in cold blood. Add that all together. I think the American people & Congress are now saying let us end our support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen.

Marco Rubio on War & Peace : Oct 14, 2018
Selling arms to Saudi Arabia gives us leverage over them

RUBIO: In Congress right now there is no pro-Saudi element that's going to stick with our relationship with Saudi Arabia as it's currently structured if they lured this man into this consulate, and killed him. As far as the options that are concerned, people talk a lot about the arms sales.

Q: The President said, basically, because there's $110 billion arms purchases on order from Saudi Arabia that that has to be weighed in the response.

RUBIO: It's not about the money; I would have phrased it differently. There are plenty other countries that would want to buy arms from the U.S. But when you sell arms to Saudi Arabia, it gives you leverage over them because they need replacement parts and training. You can't sanction a country by cutting them off of something if you never provided it in the first place.

Marco Rubio on War & Peace : Oct 14, 2018
Khashoggi: stop Saudi arms sales & reduce Yemen involvement

FLAKE: Well, severe action needs to be taken and I think the Congress will take it upon themselves to take that action if Saudi Arabia was involved.

Q: The president has ruled That involvement barely survived in the last go-round with the National Defense Authorization Act. It certainly won't survive with this kind of accusation

Q: You say if it is true. Is there any other explanation at this point?

FLAKE: There sure doesn't seem to be. There's just no good explanation and I think they know it. I wouldn't be surprised to hear different explanations that frankly won't make much sense, that it was done by lower level folks. That's what I would expect to come next.

Donald Trump on Foreign Policy : Jan 5, 2018
$350B of American arms to Saudis: jobs, jobs, jobs

The Saudis would immediately buy $110 billion's worth of American arms, and a total of $350 billion over ten years. "Hundreds of billions of dollars of investments into the United States and jobs, jobs, jobs," declared the president. Plus, the Americans and the Saudis would together "counter violent extremist messaging, disrupt financing of terrorism, and advance defense cooperation." And they would establish a center in Riyadh to fight extremism.

It was, in dramatic ways, a shift in foreign policy attitude and strategy--and its effects were almost immediate. The president, ignoring, if not defying foreign policy advice, gave a nod to the Saudis' plan to bully Qatar. Trump's view was that Qatar was providing financial support to terror groups--pay no attention to a similar Saudi history.

Bernie Sanders on Foreign Policy : Sep 21, 2017
1991: We give $7B to feudalistic dictatorships in Mideast

Tulsi Gabbard on War & Peace : May 27, 2017
Opposes fighting in Afghanistan & Syria; end arms to Saudis

Mike Pence on Immigration : Feb 5, 2017
Obama certified 7 Muslim countries compromised by terrorism

PENCE: Pres. Trump has made it clear he's going to put the safety and security of the American people first. And using a list of countries that the Obama administration and the Congress have certified were compromised by terrorist influence, seven different countries, is consistent with the President's commitment to do just that.

Q: But on this travel ban, no Egypt, no Saudi Arabia. No Pakistan, no Afghanistan. Why weren't those countries included? Because you wanted that Obama talking point.

PENCE: Well, no. It was done because both the Congress and the prior administration identified seven countries, one in Syria, torn asunder by civil war, and the other six--these are countries that do not have the internal systems in place so that we can be confident today that, when people present themselves for access to the United States, that they are who they say they are.

Jill Stein on Homeland Security : Oct 19, 2016
Don't take sides in Yemen; arms embargo instead

STEIN: Well, we already are taking a side in Yemen.

Q: But should we be?

STEIN: Yeah, we certainly should not be taking a side in Yemen. We are party to the war crimes that are being committed by Saudi Arabia, who's using cluster bombs made by us. And we've supplied $100 billion worth of weapons to the Saudis, who have been massively committing human rights abuses. It's against our own laws. The Leahy bill requires that we not sell weapons to human rights abusers. So just in accord with our own policies, we should not have anything to do with Yemen.

Q: What happens if the Houthis take over Yemen? If the U.S. disengages in Yemen, how does ISIS respond?

STEIN: Well, the point is, ISIS needs to be deprived of its nutrition and its life-blood. That's why we need to start an arms embargo, that's why we need to cut off the funding that flows through our allies, in particular.

Donald Trump on Homeland Security : Sep 26, 2016
We defend Germany, Japan, Saudi Arabia: they need to pay

CLINTON: I want to reassure our allies in Japan and South Korea and elsewhere that we have mutual defense treaties and we will honor them. It is essential that America's word be good. On behalf of a majority of the American people, I want to say that our word is good.

TRUMP: And as far as Japan is concerned, I want to help all of our allies, but we are losing billions and billions of dollars. We cannot be the policemen of the world.

Jill Stein on Homeland Security : Aug 17, 2016
Peace offensive: shut down bases, F-35, & Saudi funding

After recounting the toll in money and human life the US' counterterror efforts, Stein said: "What do we have to show for this? Failed states, mass refugee migrations and repeated terrorist threats."

Stein called for a full rethinking of the War on Terror: "We are calling for a new kind of offensive, a peace offensive in the Middle East," Stein said. The "peace offensive" would include an embargo on weapons sales and a freeze on funding to states that support "jihadi terrorist enterprises," she said, pointing to Saudi Arabia in particular. She called for a massive cut in military spending, including the closure of many bases, a shutdown of the F-35 program and not moving forward with the modernization of the US nuclear weapons program.

Jill Stein on Homeland Security : Aug 8, 2016
Close the 700+ foreign military bases

• Cut military spending by at least 50% and close the 700+ foreign military bases. Ensure a just transition that replaces reductions in military jobs with jobs in renewable energy, transportation and green infrastructure development.
• Stop U.S. financial and military support to human rights abusers. Barring substantial changes in their policies, this would include Saudi Arabia, Israel and Egypt.
• End the US' role as the world's arm supplier.

Jill Stein on War & Peace : May 9, 2016
War in Iraq created Frankenstein's monster of ISIS

Jill Stein on Foreign Policy : Feb 29, 2016
Back to the drawing board on our relationship to the Mideast

Stein pointed to the Syrian conflict as an example of the failure of US diplomacy in the region. "It's no secret that the Saudis have been behind the terror groups tearing Syria apart," she explained, citing US patronage of the oil-rich kingdom as a driving force behind instability in the war-torn country. "Saudi Arabia has been given blanket permission to instigate religious extremism to the tune of $100 billion in US weapons," she said, "Freely distributed to whichever terrorists they want to support." Stein believes that there needs to be a full weapons boycott in Syria and a freeze on the bank accounts of countries sponsoring terror, including Saudi Arabia.

Jill Stein on Foreign Policy : Feb 29, 2016
U.S. meddling in Mideast exacerbates terrorism

It's not only the Saudis, though. Stein argued that US involvement in sectarian conflicts in the Middle East, like the ongoing Syrian civil war, only exacerbate tensions in an already volatile region. "We're funding the 'good-guy terrorists' now, they might become 'bad-guy terrorists' later." Stein went on to draw a more complex picture of forces on the ground in the conflict: "They're hybrids of freedom fighters, resistance fighters. Then there are the religious extremists and the warlords. It's complicated."

One thing's for sure, said Stein: constant US meddling in the region is "putting a flamethrower to Middle East."

Bernie Sanders on Foreign Policy : Feb 4, 2016
Encourage Saudis and Iran to work together, despite distrust

SANDERS: I concede that Secretary Clinton, who was secretary of State for four years, has more experience in foreign affairs. But experience is not the only point, judgment is. In terms of Iran and in terms of Saudi Arabia, of course they hate each other. That's no great secret. But John Kerry, who is I think doing a very good job, has tried to at least get these people in the room together because both of them are being threatened by ISIS.

Jill Stein on Foreign Policy : Dec 26, 2015
End foreign aid to countries with human rights abuses

Bernie Sanders on War & Peace : Dec 19, 2015
Tell Qatar and Saudi Arabia that they must fight ISIS

Mike Huckabee on Energy & Oil : Dec 15, 2015
Become energy exporter to weaken Russia & Iran

Sen. GRAHAM: Well, I agree with that. I'd like to stop sending $350 billion overseas to buy oil from people who hate our guts, wouldn't you? Wouldn't you like to export natural gas to cut Putin's legs out from under him?

Bernie Sanders on Foreign Policy : Nov 14, 2015
Moral responsibility to reach out to Syrian refugees

SANDERS: I believe that the US has the moral responsibility with Europe, with Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia to make sure that when people leave countries like Afghanistan and Syria with nothing more than the clothing on their back that, of course, we reach out. Now, what the magic number is, I don't know, because we don't know the extent of the problem. But I certainly think that the US should take its full responsibility in helping those people.

Q: Gov. O'Malley, you have a magic number. I think it's 65,000.

O'MALLEY: I was the first person on this stage to say that we should accept the 65,000 Syrian refugees that were fleeing the sort of murder of ISIL, and I believe that that needs to be done with proper screening. But accommodating 65,000 refugees in our country today, people of 320 million, is akin to making room for 6.5 more people in a baseball stadium with 32,000.

Marco Rubio on War & Peace : Nov 10, 2015
ISIS hates our way of life; either they win or we win

Jill Stein on Homeland Security : Oct 14, 2015
Immediate weapons embargo to the Middle East

Bernie Sanders on Foreign Policy : Oct 11, 2015
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar should take charge in Syria

SANDERS: Well, it failed. I mean, the president acknowledged that. Syria is a quagmire inside of a quagmire. I think what the president has tried to do is thread a very difficult needle. And that is keep American troops from engaging in combat and getting killed there. And I think that is the right thing to do. So I think we continue to try to do everything that we can, focusing primarily on trying to defeat ISIS. But I am worried about American troops getting sucked into a never ending war in the Middle East and particularly in, you know, Iraq and Syria. I don't think the United States can or should be doi

Donald Trump on Foreign Policy : Sep 28, 2015
Reimbursement for US military bases in rich countries abroad

Trump then got into a specific example: Saudi Arabia, one of the more important US allies in the Middle East. Saudis "make a billion dollars a day. We protect them. So we need help. We are losing a tremendous amount of money on a yearly basis and we owe $19 trillion," he said.

Walking back trade deals and agreements that allow the US military to operate overseas is easier said than done. But Trump has tapped into a powerful anti-Washington populist sentiment.

Marco Rubio on Foreign Policy : Sep 16, 2015
Putin trying to position Russia as a geopolitical force

He's trying to destroy NATO. He is exploiting a vacuum that this administration has left in the Middle East. The Russians will begin to fly combat missions in that region, not just targeting ISIS, but in order to prop up Assad. Putin will say, "America is no longer a reliable ally, Egypt. America is no longer a reliable ally, Saudi Arabia. Rely on us."

Bernie Sanders on Foreign Policy : Sep 13, 2015
Address humanitarian crisis in Syria with allies in region

SANDERS: I think it's impossible to give a proper number until we understand the dimensions of the problem. What I do believe is that Europe, the United States and, by the way, countries like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, must address this humanitarian crisis. People are leaving Iraq, they're leaving Syria with just the clothes on their backs. The world has got to respond. The United States should be part of that response.

Q: When it comes to Syria, how much of the problem is the United States' fault, of policy, whether Bush in Iraq or Obama in Syria?

SANDERS: Look, I voted against the war in Iraq; much of what I feared would happen, in fact, did happen: Massive destabilization in that region. The issue now is not who is at fault. The issue is now what we do. And what we do is bring the region together.

Bernie Sanders on War & Peace : Aug 30, 2015
Middle Eastern countries must contribute to fight ISIS

Chris Christie on Foreign Policy : Aug 2, 2015
Arm Emiratis, Jordanians, & others before sending US troops

A: My first alternative and preferred alternative is to arm the Jordanians, the Egyptians, the Emiratis and the Saudis to bring this fight to those folks. They need more help. They need better arms. They need more support from an intelligence perspective and they need to know that America's going to stand with them when the polls are up or down.

Mike Huckabee on War & Peace : Mar 1, 2015
US boots on the ground to fight ISIS ok, if others join too

HUCKABEE: We don't leave anything off the table. But if they're going to be boots, they have to be more than just U.S. boots. There's got to be some boots that from come from the Saudis, the Jordanians and others.

Bernie Sanders on War & Peace : Oct 12, 2014
Get Saudis & regional powers involved with fighting ISIS

SANDERS: ISIS is a brutal, awful, dangerous army and they have got to be defeated. But this is not just an American problem. This is an international crisis. This is a regional crisis. And I think the people of America are getting sick and tired of the world and the region, Saudi Arabia and the other countries saying "hey, we don't have to do anything about it. The American taxpayer, the American soldiers will do all the work for us." Most people don't know is that Saudi Arabia is the 4th largest defense spender in the world, more than the U.K., more than France. They have an army which is probably seven times larger than ISIS. They have a major air force.

Q: Sure. But they have shown no sign at all that they want to go in and neither have the Jordanians.

SANDERS: The question that we have got to ask is why are the nations in the region not more actively involved? Why don't they see this as a crisis situation?

Donald Trump on Energy & Oil : Mar 16, 2011
It's incredible how slowly we're drilling for oil

It's not the market [raising the price], it's OPEC. They set the price of oil. If they did it in this country, it would be called illegal.

I think it's incredible that we're going slow on drilling. I think it's beyond anything I've ever seen that we're going slow on drilling.

there are always going to be problems. You're going to have an oil spill. You clean it up and you fix it up and it'll be fine.

I have people in the business and they say it's almost impossible to get a permit to drill. So you can imagine how hard it is to get nuclear and other things but they say it's almost impossible. If you look at natural gas, we're the Saudi Arabia times 100 of natural gas--but we don't use it.

Mike Huckabee on Energy & Oil : Nov 18, 2008
Oil has not just shaped our foreign policy; it's deformed it

Mike Huckabee on Energy & Oil : Jan 1, 2008
Comprehensive plan for energy independence within ten years

Mike Huckabee on Homeland Security : Jan 1, 2008
Support moderate modern evil over Al-Qaeda's medieval evil

Although we cannot export democracy as if it were Coca-Cola or KFC, we can nurture moderate forces in places where al Qaeda is seeking to replace modern evil with medieval evil. Such moderation may not look or function like our system--it may be a benevolent oligarchy or more tribal than individualistic--but both for us and for the peoples of those countries, it will be better than the dictatorships they have now or the theocracy they would have under radical Islamists.

Mike Huckabee on Energy & Oil : Nov 25, 2007
Energy independence: let Saudis keep their oil & their sand

A: I would make the United States energy independent within 10 years and tell the Saudis they can keep their oil just like they can keep their sand, that we won't need either one of them. America has allowed itself to become enslaved to Saudi oil. It's absurd. It's embarrassing. Since 1973, we keep talking about project independence. We never have the political will to do it. It is high time that we stop this sense of almost being subordinated by the Saudis as well as the rest of the Middle East, particularly countries who do not like us, who do not have our best interests at heart. We need a self-sustaining, environmentally friendly energy source or energy sources. And that's no longer a matter of just environmental concern and our economic interest, it is now really a matter of utmost national security.

Mike Huckabee on Free Trade : Sep 17, 2007
Trade sanctions on Saudi Arabia for persecuting Christians

• HUCKABEE: Yes.
• TANCREDO: Yes.
• COX: Yes.
• BROWNBACK: Yes.
• PAUL: No.
• HUNTER: No.
• KEYES: Yes.

Joe Biden on War & Peace : Aug 19, 2007
Leaving Iraq will cause generation-long regional war

Mike Huckabee on War & Peace : Aug 5, 2007
We made Saudis rich; pressure them to help win with honor

A: Certainly. The middle ground is that we win this war & we do it with honor. We don't just stay indefinitely. We put some pressure on the Saudis. Look, we've made them rich. Every time somebody in this room goes to the gas pump, you've helped make the Saudi royal family a little wealthier. And the money that has been used against us in terrorism has largely come from the Middle East. There's two things we've got to do. Number one, we've got to insist that the people in that neighborhood take a far greater role militarily and financially in solving the problem. It's their neighborhood. But the second thing we'd do, for our own national security, is end our dependence on foreign oil. And let's not play around and say "30 years," let's get it done. Let's get it done now. And let's make sure that we don't have to depend upon their oil for our future energy needs.

Mike Huckabee on Homeland Security : Jan 5, 2006
Islamic terror is about worldwide caliphate, not US attacks

THOMPSON: Who have we invaded before 9/11?

PAUL: We had an air base in Saudi Arabia. And how many governments have we propped up?

HUCKABEE: The fact is when there is a serious threa to this country, it is not a threat because we happen to be peace-loving people. It's a threat because in the heart of the radical Islamic faith--not all Islam. This isn't an Islamic problem. This is a jihadist problem. This is an Islamo-fascism problem. There is nothing about our attacking them that prompts this. They are prompted by the fact they believe that they must establish a worldwide caliphate that has nothing to do with us other than we live and breathe and their intention is to destroy us.

Bernie Sanders on War & Peace : Jun 17, 1997
1990: Opposed authorizing all-out war in Kuwait with Iraq

From the very beginning of the Persian Gulf crisis, I was of the belief that the US could push Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait without having to resort to war. Diplomacy, economic boycott, isolation, financial leverage: we had many means for reversing the invasion. I was not only opposed to the war because of the potential destruction and loss of life, but also because I believe it IS possible for the major countries of this planet, and a virtually united world community, to resolve crises without carnage. If this matter could not be solved without massive bombing & killing thousands of people, then what crisis could ever be solved peacefully?