Former CIA Director James Woolsey: Obama "Scared" To Use Islamic to Describe Terrorists
DON LEMON, CNN: Ambassador Woolsey, the president being -- is he being too politically correct? Should he call ISIS Islamic extremists or does it really matter?
JAMES WOOLSEY, FORMER CIA DIRECTOR: The president is a sort of world champion of political correctness, and I think that he's let it really run too far here.
It might be different if he were taking a really stern position with respect to those groups in the Middle East and elsewhere that are causing huge problems. The Russians are running a foreign policy very much the way Hitler did from 1933 to 1939. The Chinese are trying to take over the South China Sea. The ISIS is doing what it is doing, murdering people, burning them alive and trying to expand into a caliphate that covers -- has a estate that covers much in the Middle East, and beyond, in a way, the way it happened in Mohammed's time.
LEMON: But, Ambassador, beyond just what the name is, what calling it is, many say it doesn't really matter. Does it affect the strategy? The president said that we have to address the root causes of radicalism, poverty, lack of education, and so on but --
WOOLSEY: But --
LEMON: Go on.
WOOLSEY: You need to address the root causes as well under these circumstances as let people know that you can fight. And you have to fight effectively, and he is not doing that. He didn't do it with Syria. He didn't -- and he is not do anything to ship weapons that are needed to Ukrainians who are dealing with the Russians. He is not dealing with Iran on anything but a very weak basis in the negotiations over the Iranian nuclear weapons.
LEMON: So you would like his approach to be tougher, how so?
WOOLSEY: Absolutely. Well, I think on those three areas -- I think there are four big areas, we want to say 3 1/2, China -- and the South China Sea is perhaps -- let's set that aside for a second. Russia taking over as much as it is in the process of doing of central and eastern Europe and perhaps back into Central Asia, in Kazakhstan is a very serious problem for that part of that world, and others that border on it.
ISIS is a huge problem for stability not only in the Middle East, but we may start seeing some of these terrible actions occurring not only in Europe as they have begun to, but in the United States, and then of course, you have the Iranians, and there are a various instrumentalities such as Hezbollah running things in a very rough in their part of the world.
And if he were taking a firm stand on these, if he were helping arm the Ukrainians --
LEMON: Right.
WOOLSEY: -- then he might have a bit more flexibility in the way he termed it. But basically he looks scared.
LEMON: Right.
WOOLSEY: He looks as if he's afraid of using the adjective Islamic to describe the terrorists.
LEMON: Right.
WOOLSEY: And that doesn't mean that all terrorists are Muslims and it doesn't mean that all Muslims are terrorists, that's nuts.
LEMON: But you're thinking he should at least use the word, Ambassador.
WOOLSEY: If you can't do that you will look like you're scared.
LEMON: Thank you --
WOOLSEY: And he looks like he's scared.
DON LEMON, CNN: Ambassador Woolsey, the president being -- is he being too politically correct? Should he call ISIS Islamic extremists or does it really matter?
JAMES WOOLSEY, FORMER CIA DIRECTOR: The president is a sort of world champion of political correctness, and I think that he's let it really run too far here.
It might be different if he were taking a really stern position with respect to those groups in the Middle East and elsewhere that are causing huge problems. The Russians are running a foreign policy very much the way Hitler did from 1933 to 1939. The Chinese are trying to take over the South China Sea. The ISIS is doing what it is doing, murdering people, burning them alive and trying to expand into a caliphate that covers -- has a estate that covers much in the Middle East, and beyond, in a way, the way it happened in Mohammed's time.
LEMON: But, Ambassador, beyond just what the name is, what calling it is, many say it doesn't really matter. Does it affect the strategy? The president said that we have to address the root causes of radicalism, poverty, lack of education, and so on but --
WOOLSEY: But --
LEMON: Go on.
WOOLSEY: You need to address the root causes as well under these circumstances as let people know that you can fight. And you have to fight effectively, and he is not doing that. He didn't do it with Syria. He didn't -- and he is not do anything to ship weapons that are needed to Ukrainians who are dealing with the Russians. He is not dealing with Iran on anything but a very weak basis in the negotiations over the Iranian nuclear weapons.
LEMON: So you would like his approach to be tougher, how so?
WOOLSEY: Absolutely. Well, I think on those three areas -- I think there are four big areas, we want to say 3 1/2, China -- and the South China Sea is perhaps -- let's set that aside for a second. Russia taking over as much as it is in the process of doing of central and eastern Europe and perhaps back into Central Asia, in Kazakhstan is a very serious problem for that part of that world, and others that border on it.
ISIS is a huge problem for stability not only in the Middle East, but we may start seeing some of these terrible actions occurring not only in Europe as they have begun to, but in the United States, and then of course, you have the Iranians, and there are a various instrumentalities such as Hezbollah running things in a very rough in their part of the world.
And if he were taking a firm stand on these, if he were helping arm the Ukrainians --
LEMON: Right.
WOOLSEY: -- then he might have a bit more flexibility in the way he termed it. But basically he looks scared.
LEMON: Right.
WOOLSEY: He looks as if he's afraid of using the adjective Islamic to describe the terrorists.
LEMON: Right.
WOOLSEY: And that doesn't mean that all terrorists are Muslims and it doesn't mean that all Muslims are terrorists, that's nuts.
LEMON: But you're thinking he should at least use the word, Ambassador.
WOOLSEY: If you can't do that you will look like you're scared.
LEMON: Thank you --
WOOLSEY: And he looks like he's scared.
