Rep. Allen West called Thursday for effectively ending U.S. ties to Egypt and other Arab nations in the wake of attacks on U.S. embassies by sending their ambassadors home and cutting off American aid.
"We are operating in fantasy land," the Florida Republican told Fox News's Sean Hannity, declaring that President Barack Obama's "policy of appeasement" will never keep "radical Islamism" from spreading throughout the Middle East.
"What we need to do is to have a very harsh, diplomatic stance, first and foremost, to get our American citizens, get these embassies closed down," West said. "And we probably need to look at the representatives and diplomats from these countries, and tell them to go home and figure out what they are going to do, as far as the relations that they are going to have with the United States of America, and how they are going to control radical Islamism in their countries."
"It's very clear that they are taking the side of being enemies of [America]," he said of Egypt, Libya, and other countries where violent anti-American protests have taken place.
"We need to send that message," he added. "And furthermore, the conditions that we have in place for funding, we need to make sure those conditions stay, and we should not let up on those conditions and [not] provide another cent?
West also insisted that the American-made Internet video denigrating Islam did not set off the anti-American protests, especially the one in Libya that led to the violent deaths of four U.S. diplomatic officials.
"This is a blatant attack," he said of the assault on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. "It has nothing to do with this silly Facebook video that came out six months ago."
West urged Obama to adopt former President Ronald Reagan's approach to foreign policy by pursuing "peace through strength," adding that people who live in the Arab world "only understand strength and might."
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