The United States should not send ground troops in the battle against the Islamic State (ISIS) because it could escalate tensions and spread the fighting to central Asia, Zbigniew Brzezinski told MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
"I still maintain that we should not get involved in struggling on the ground, because this has the makings of a growing geographical escalation.
"It's going to spread to central Asia. It's going to affect probably Afghanistan and Pakistan. We go in on the ground, we're going to be fighting the world of Islam for the next 20 years," said Brzezinski, former national security adviser under President Jimmy Carter.
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ISIS fighters continue to seize territory in Iraq and Syria, and now threaten the Syrian city of Kobani along Turkey's southern border. Brzezinski suggested employing Kurdish forces to protect Kobani, since Turkey has failed to send troops to battle the Islamic militants.
"There are Kurdish forces nearby [Kobani]. Maybe, in these circumstances, what we could do is, in some fashion, airlift them. And so to speak, deliver them, and to reinforce the resistance and show a signal that we're prepared to extend ourselves," Brzezinski said.
Reluctance by the Turks to engage the Islamic State could be due to fears about what the U.S. involvement would be in the fight against the militants, Brzezinski said.
"I think the Turks are simply uneasy about plunging into a venture in which our long-term commitment, from their point of view, is not certain. And what happens if it doesn't go well?" he said.
There were four countries in the area that "have to pitch in" to fight the Islamic State, Brzezinski said — Turkey, which was "foremost among them"; Saudi Arabia, which was playing a "complicated game"; Egypt, which "can't sit on the sidelines"; and Iran, which the U.S. has to "face the fact that they are a player."
The U.S. should "lay off that kind of language" that makes the battle against the Islamic State "an American conflict against increasingly fanatical Islam," he said, adding the fight was against "criminals who are themselves threatening the world of Islam, and therefore, our allies are Islamic states."
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