A former U.S. diplomat to Saudi Arabia thinks the United States needs to start treating the Islamic State (ISIS) like an actual state.
"We see now huge portions not just of Iraq, but also of Syria being actually governed by ISIS," says Robert W. Jordan, who worked in the George W. Bush administration, during an appearance on
Newsmax TV's "The Hard Line."
"They're collecting taxes, they're taking money out of the banks, they're selling oil, acting very much like a state and they have to be treated like a state in terms of military conflict as well."
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Jordan thinks President Barack Obama, underestimating the threat posed by ISIS, has done more harm than good in the military's fight against the terror group.
"We have, as the president said one time, treated them as a junior varsity team to continue the sports analogy and that's a huge mistake," Jordan tells host Ed Berliner. "We've underestimated them at every turn. We absolutely have to find a way to arm and train our allies in the region more. The Saudis have to step up. The Emirates, the Jordanians all have to step up because this is initially their neighborhood, but it's also a huge threat to the United States. We can't ignore it if those allies are as inadequate at the moment as they are."
During a Monday speech on the administration's approach to battling ISIS, Obama said, "To the American people, I want to say we will continue to be vigilant. And we will ultimately prevail."
As for the U.S. alliance with Saudi Arabia, Jordan — who recently authored a new book,
"Desert Diplomat: Inside Saudi Arabia Following 9/11" — thinks it is an important relationship but it needs some help.
"It certainly needs some marriage counseling,"Jordan says. "We've got to make them responsible more for their own security, more for their own neighborhood, but we've got to provide that assistance in training and stay close to them. Otherwise, it can unravel."
Jordan, who was the U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 2001-2003, also addressed the
negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program.
Saying he's "skeptical," Jordan wants to take a wait-and-see approach before making a final judgment.
"I'm skeptical. [Secretary of State John Kerry is] trying to lower expectations because we really don't know how this is going to come out," Jordan says. "He's also trying to set up his own credentials as someone who would be a strict guardian of the correctness of any deal that we make, but I'm very skeptical."
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