Middle East and European countries should step up in dealing with the threat posed by the Islamic State and not expect the United States to "carry your water," MSNBC "Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough said Wednesday.
The group, formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), is a "cancer that has to be cut up," Scarborough said, but stressed that the United States needs to "let the world come to us and ask us to carry their water again, like we've been doing for about 60 years now."
"I support the president trying to get Arab nations to fight with us side by side, trying to get European nations. I'm sick and tired of Europeans sitting back and doing nothing.
"More Muslims are going to be killed by ISIS than Westerners. So, if you guys are sitting back waiting for us to carry your water again, just so you can bitch and moan because you don't like the way we carry your water when we try to keep you safe, you know what? You have another thing coming," said Scarborough, a former Republican Florida congressman.
President Barack Obama does indeed have a strategy for combating ISIS, Scarborough said, which is to "make sure that ISIS pays for what they've been doing, to stop them from killing more Americans and more Westerners." What Obama will not do, he said, is to "shoot first and ask questions later."
America is a "war weary nation," Scarborough said, adding that any action the United States takes requires that "we get it right the first time." He cautioned that Americans should not "overreact to this," but admitted the "clock is ticking" to address the terrorist organization.
"When you have a terrorist organization that has hundreds of millions of dollars, when you have a terrorist organization that has the ability to take over chemical plants, when you have a terrorist organization that has hundreds of American passports, hundreds of British passports, this is a cancer that you can't let lay dormant," he said.