With just seven words, former President Jimmy Carter took a sharp U-turn from his well-known Middle East isolationism and pacifism in a forum at the Carter Center in Atlanta.
"I think we need to attack ISIS,"
Carter said.
As President Barack Obama has announced his intention to attack the terrorist group Islamic State (ISIS) with bombing raids, Carter said Tuesday night, "I'm really concerned about them, you know. Is the bombing of ISIS justified? I say yes."
Carter agrees with Obama that U.S. ground troops will not be needed in the effort against ISIS. "I hope that President Obama has every possible success in getting allies to join with us, some with ground troops that are affected inside Syria," he said.
In August, Carter told a meeting of the Islamic Society of North America that the United States must use the "principles of Allah" to seek peace in the Middle East but his statements at the forum indicate that Carter now believes ISIS to be a serious threat to the area's security and must be attacked and destroyed.
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Speaking with a group of Emory University students Wednesday, Carter reiterated his position, stating, "I think that what President Obama has now proposed is probably the right approach, that the United States should just limit itself to aerial support of ground troops,"
WABE reported.
"Inside Syria, we don’t have any ground troops on whom we can depend," he said. "There"s no other Arab country that has aligned itself with us to fight against ISIS."
However, he agrees with Obama's decision to send 3,000 U.S. troops to West Arica to battle the Ebola virus outbreak, and said that it should have been done "a long time ago," adding, "Now I think they’ll get adequate support and do what should have been done in the last two months."
Carter still couldn't resist taking a potshot at Israel at the Carter Center forum, stating, "I don't think [the Israeli/Palestinian question] is going to be resolved easily.
"The only solution to it is what the U.S. stands for and the rest of the world stands for except for Israel, that is, to go back to the l967 borders with some modifications to that area to permit Israeli settlements that have already been formed to stay there and to swap the same amount of land from Israel to the Palestinians, and for Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories," Carter said, Daily Signal reported. "Those are the two basic things on which the whole world agrees, with the exception of Israel, I might say,"
When asked whether America is ready for a female President, Carter began to answer, but was interrupted by his wife, Rosalyn, who said, "I think we should have had one earlier."
Laughing, Carter replied, "Well I won't argue with my wife on that."
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