GOP candidate Ben Carson Tuesday urged people to "listen to what I'm saying, and not what other people are saying about me," pointing out his seven-point plan to eliminate the Islamic State's threat.
"We need to declare war on ISIS," Carson told
Fox News' "Fox & Friends" program. "We need to form a real coalition with the states down there that have an interest in getting rid of ISIS, because they're next on the list."
According to
Business Insider, Carson's complete plan includes:
- Forming a military coalition, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan, to fight ISIS.
- Urging regional partners to recruit and train Sunni Syrian men based in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf and Sunni Syrian male refugees in Jordan. He did not mention Iraqi Sunnis.
- Establishing a refugee safe zone in northeastern Syria and putting refugees under "international protection."
- Enacting emergency visa policies, and limiting visitor visas to three months and requiring mandatory check-ins for extensions.
- Immediately deploying the military and National Guard to patrol the borders of the United States.
- Designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization and investigating the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood and a supporter of terrorism.
Carson continued that he would not rule out boots on the ground, if they are needed, but that would depend on the opinions of the nation's military experts.
"We have to ask the military experts, 'what do you need in order to accomplish this mission?'" he said. "And whatever that is, that's what we should give them."
Meanwhile, Carson's poll numbers may be dipping, but his fundraising still has not suffered.
The retired neurosurgeon raised nearly $21 million in the third quarter and is expected to break that record when fourth-quarter numbers come out later this week, the Fox program reported, marking the most money raised by a candidate.
His secret is "the people themselves," said Carson. "I don't accept money from billionaires who want to influence things or for special interest groups and I wouldn't do that as president, either.
"I think that's a large part of the problem that we have. But the people themselves, who are the ones who are responsible for me running, because I wouldn't have done it without all of the clamoring and the draft movement."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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