Kasich: U.S. must lead response to ISIS terrorist attacks

Republican presidential candidate John Kasich called Tuesday for the U.S. to lead a global response to last week’s terrorist attacks in Paris.

Speaking at the Club, he urged the formation of an international coalition to fight ISIS, the terrorist group entrenched in Iraq and Syria that is blamed for the carnage in France that left at least 129 people dead. The effort would involve ground troops.

“We must join with our NATO allies and, importantly, with allies in the region as well – the Turks, the Jordanians, the Egyptians, the Gulf States, the Saudis – to organize an international coalition to defeat ISIS on the ground in its heartland,” said Kasich, who is in his second term as Ohio governor.

In a question-and-answer session moderated by Club Vice President Tommy Burr, Kasich said the number of U.S. troops he would commit to the fight would be determined by military and civilian advisers.

“We will not stop this with airpower,” Kasich said. “You can bomb them until Doomsday. It’s just simply not going to work. You don’t take back territory from the air.”

Other parts of his plan include invoking a NATO clause that would require all countries in the alliance to come to France’s defense, intensifying international intelligence cooperation, providing support for the Kurds in Iraq and Syria and creating no-fly-zone safe havens.

He would consolidate U.S. public diplomacy and international broadcasting efforts into a new agency with a “clear mandate to promote...Judeo-Christian Western values.”

“The fight against ISIS in Syria and Iraq is a symptom of a broader weakness in America’s national security policy: failing to advance our values in the battle of ideas,” Kasich said. “Not doing so against a threat such as ISIS or in places such as Syria and Iraq is interpreted by other opponents around the world as weakness. And weakness invites challenge and attacks of the kind that we have seen from nations that do not share our values, such as China and Russia.”

Kasich said he also wanted to rebuild the U.S. military “from the bottom up.” He said that he could fund such an effort with the economic growth and budget savings that would be produced from his fiscal plan.

In the wake of the Paris attacks, several governors, including Kasich, have said that they don’t want to accept Syrian refugees displaced by that country’s civil war. The U.S. has committed to taking in about 10,000. One of the Paris perpetrators is believed to have come from Syria.

Kasich said that denying entry to Syrians fleeing turmoil in their country does not mean he is unfeeling. He says his first priority is to protect Americans.

“I do have a big heart,” Kasich said. “But I also have a pretty good brain. We just have to have a system that can determine who these people are. We just have to be very careful for our friends, our neighbors, our family and our country.”

Kasich said he welcomes Muslims but condemns “the radicals.”

The Syrian immigration topic produced a tense moment during the Q&A. When Burr posed several follow-up questions based on audience interest, Kasich indicated that he had “said all I’ve got to say” on the issue.

“You’re done talking refugees, but we’re not done asking,” Burr responded.

Kasich polls in single digits in national polling, but expressed confidence he will survive until late in the race.

“National polls have been tough for me,” Kasich said. “I think they’ll be corrected once we get through New Hampshire. I don’t have any doubt about being around.”