CNN "Erin Burnett Outfront" - Transcript:
Interview
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URNETT: All right. Jim, thank you very much.
And OUTFRONT tonight, Democratic Congressman Chris Van Hollen.
Good to talk to you, Congressman.
So, you know, today we have, after 13 days ago, a horrific beheading video, another one today -- an American beheaded in Syria, a noncombatant, a journalist. Administration officials have said ISIS poses -- I'll quote him -- a very serious threat to the United States homeland, yet last week the president said, and I want to quote him, "We don't have a strategy yet to deal with ISIS in Syria."
The question is, Congressman, why in the world not?
REP. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D), MARYLAND: Well, first, Erin, I think our prayers should all go out to the Sotloff family tonight. Second, the president has kept up the attack on ISIS positions in Iraq. In fact, as you heard, some of the justification for this beheading was the fact that the president continued to provide airstrikes in support of Iraqi and Kurdish troops in Iraq against ISIS positions.
With respect to Syria, the president is absolutely right, that in order to accomplish the goal of eliminating ISIS, you need to have a concerted effort not just the United States being involved. It's very important that countries like Saudi Arabia, like Turkey, Sunni-led governments, are part of this effort. Otherwise, you feed the ISIS narrative that somehow they're the rightful carriers of the banner of Sunni Islam. That would fuel their narrative. We need to put together a coalition that involves the Sunni-led governments, who, by the way, as you know, helped create this Frankenstein by looking the other way for many years.
BURNETT: That's a fair point.
Now, the executioner in the video has a message directly to the president of the United States. He said I'm back, Obama. I just want to play a small portion of that so you could actually hear his voice.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because of your insistence in continuing your bombings in Amerli, Samarra and the Mosul dam, despite our serious warnings, you, Obama, have yet again through your actions killed yet another American citizen. So, just as your missiles continue to strike our people, our knife will continue to strike the necks of your people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Now, Congressman, you supported air strikes. There have been at least 120 in Iraq so far, but why have there been none in Syria where this beheading and the one two weeks ago is believed to have happened? Not a single airstrike in Syria yet?
VAN HOLLEN: Because the president and a broad array of national security experts have indicated, airstrikes alone in Syria are not going to do the job.
So, the first thing you want to do is actually stop the ISIS advance on the ground in Iraq. We have done that, again supporting Iraqi and Kurdish forces.
Number two, you want a sustained effort against ISIS in Syria. So, we should be doing things like arming the Kurds in Syria. So, for example, we provided arms to Kurds in Iraq. The Kurds in Syria were fighting ISIS there before we in the West were even talking about ISIS. We can be helping them.
But in order to be effective in the long run, in order to actually accomplish the objective of getting rid of ISIS, you have to have these other Sunni-led governments involved in the action --
BURNETT: All right.
VAN HOLLEN: -- because they've got to step up and say, ISIS does not speak for Sunni Islam. And if they're not part of it, you do feed the ISIS narrative that they're fighting the West. That actually draws more recruits, not less.
BURNETT: So, what you're saying makes complete sense except for -- except for this. When you say airstrikes aren't enough to do the job, as you just said, but then you talk about arming other people on the ground. I mean, isn't there perhaps a reality that it may take boots on the ground, American boots on the ground, American weapons with Americans holding them as opposed to just arming other people, to stop a threat like this? Is that a reality that we have to face?
VAN HOLLEN: No, that would be a huge mistake. So, in Iraq, we've got the right strategy. You've got Iraqi and Kurdish forces on the ground supported by American airstrikes to prevent the ISIS advance.
Again, American boots on the ground in Syria would simply fan the flames of the sectarian banner that ISIS wants to claim it's carrying right now. This is why it is absolutely so important, Erin, that the Turks, who have been letting ISIS cross their border with impunity for a long time and the Saudis who have been looking the other way while many people have been financing ISIS from Saudi territories --
BURNETT: All right.
VAN HOLLEN: -- as well as other Gulf states, they need to get into this fight. And if they're not in the fight, then ISIS is able to claim somehow that they're the twisted carriers of the Sunni Islam torch. That would simply feed their narrative, not defeat it. That's why it's so important to build a coalition for action.
BURNETT: All right. Chris Van Hollen, thank you very much. We appreciate your time tonight, Congressman.
VAN HOLLEN: Thank you.
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