Liberal pundit Alan Colmes and former Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich caught the ire of
Fox News Channel host Bill O'Reilly on Wednesday when they told him they wouldn't have used airstrikes against the Islamic State (ISIS) in Iraq.
Obama is making an
empty promise when he tells Americans that ISIS can be defeated, Colmes said.
"We could contain them, but it's not our role," Colmes told O'Reilly.
"Militarily I would not be involved," he continued. He acknowledged that ISIS is murdering U.S. citizens in Syria, but said the group is not a threat to the U.S. homeland.
Colmes said he would work on drying up ISIS' funding and let the United Nations lead any military effort.
At that point, O'Reilly turned to Kucinich, the former Ohio congressman and Democratic presidential candidate.
"Are you that extreme, Mr. Kucinich?" O'Reilly asked. "If Colmes were president, ISIS wouldn't have to worry about any kind of bombing."
"I'm mainstream," Kucinich responded. "The so-called war on terror created more terrorists."
O'Reilly said that if Colmes or Kucinich were in the White House, the
Yazidis who were trapped on a mountain in northern Iraq earlier this year would have died, and the Kurds in northern Iraq might have been overrun because there would have been no U.S. airstrikes to turn the ground battle back in their favor.
"I would not have intervened," Kucinich said. "It's none of our business."
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