Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) slammed President Barack Obama's foreign policy decisions in the Middle East on Sunday's CBS "Face the Nation," saying Obama has committed "presidential malpractice," CBS News reported.
"I think that Exhibit A is what he's done with the Middle East. He ran for office under the notion that our national interest in the Middle East was to disengage as quickly as possible and disentangle from the region. And that has been chaotic," said Rubio. He argued that the president's actions, "have been dramatically counterproductive to our foreign policy, and I think have created some generational and reputational damage to the United States of great significance."
American allies have been sent mixed messages by the Obama administration about the United States plan to combat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS, formally known as ISIL), leading them to believe that the country's foreign policy "is in the hands of someone who does not know what he's doing," said Rubio.
With Obama announcing of his plans to deliver a speech Wednesday detailing plans to "hunt down" ISIS, the Florida senator said he wants the president to explain the risk that the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) poses and explain what our national security interests are in the region, The Hill reported.
"I wanna hear what he should have said-- months ago, weeks ago. I hope that that will include a sustained air campaign involving every element of our air power, targeting the supply lines, targeting their command and control structures," said Rubio, who has not previously backed air strikes against Syria. "I hope that will include their central command and control structures within Syria. I also hope he's announcing that he's going to target the refineries that they now control in Syria, revenues from which they're using to fund their operations."
If the U.S. plans to destroy ISIL, Rubio said airstrikes in Syria are "critical."
"You cannot defeat ISIL unless you hit them in those parts of Syria that they now control, where the Syrian government is not even present," he said.
Additionally, he believes that ISIS militants pose a threat to the American homeland because of the "hundreds if not thousands" of ISIS militants who hold western passports and the knowledge of U.S. intelligence-gathering capabilities that the group has obtained through disclosures, Rubio said, further criticizing the president's assertion in "Meet the Press" Sunday that there has been no immediate intelligence to indicate ISIS poses a threat to the homeland.
"For us to simply sit back and say, 'We don't think they pose a threat,' because we haven't seen one, I think would be short-sighted," Rubio said. "The fact of the matter is this group has among their ranks hundreds if not thousands of people with the capability of entering the United States quickly and easily. And we should not take that lightly."
Meanwhile, he was also critical of Obama's announcement on Sunday that he will delay action on immigration until after the midterm elections.
"It's definitely politics," Rubio said. "He doesn't want to be held accountable by the electorate in the midterm elections for an action that he knows is unpopular."
