Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) on Saturday unleashed a blistering criticism of President Obama’s response to the beheading of U.S. journalist James Foley.
Jindal, a potential 2016 presidential candidate, called Obama “disturbingly naive” and said the president’s “dangerous utopian” view of the world was revealed in his statement after the video of the murder was released by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
{mosads}”In World War II we did not win the future by building, we won it by destroying,” he wrote in a Fox News op-ed. “Uncomfortable or not, that is the truth. The murderous fools who cut the heads off of Americans must be destroyed, and sent to their reward, such as it is, in the next life.”
The Louisiana governor was belittling Obama’s statement that “people like [ISIS] ultimately fail. They fail, because the future is won by those who build and not destroy and the world is shaped by people like Jim Foley.”
Jindal said ISIS would fail only if the United States causes it. He asserted Obama did not use more forceful language because “the focus group would get a little uncomfortable with those words.”
“While he does a nice job of explaining our horror, his remarks on what America will do about it are insufficient, naïve, and just plain weak,” Jindal said.
Obama on Wednesday described ISIS as a cancer that needs to be extracted, urging others in the Middle East to help.
“One thing we can all agree on is that a group like ISIL has no place in the 21st century,” Obama said.
At another point, Obama said the United State would do what it must to protect U.S. citizens.
“We will be vigilant and we will be relentless,” Obama said in his remarks. “When people harm Americans, anywhere, we do what’s necessary to see that justice is done. And we act against ISIL, standing alongside others.”
Jindal said the word “justice” is too weak and the United States should “hunt them down and kill them…regardless of who stands with us.”
“You may argue that I’m merely quibbling with words here. No, the issue is far bigger than that,” Jindal said.
Jindal’s rhetoric echoes that of President George W. Bush following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
“Make no mistake, the United States will hunt down and punish those responsible for these cowardly acts,” Bush said in one of his first statements after the attacks.