Bush: Declare war on ISIS

Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush on Sunday joined a growing chorus calling for the United States to more aggressively confront the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) instead of merely containing the extremist group.

“We should declare war and harness all of the power the U.S. can bring to bear, both diplomatic and military, of course, to be able to take out ISIS,” the former Florida governor said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

{mosads}“We have the capabilities of doing this, we just haven’t shown the will.”

Friday’s deadly attack in Paris, during which adherents of ISIS killed 129 people in a series of coordinated strikes across the French capital, added to the growing sense of frustration among many critics of the Obama administration about its policy against ISIS.

Multiple Republicans have repeatedly chided the White House for taking what they see as a hands-off approach to the chaos in Syria, and have called for a more muscular U.S. response.

“This is a threat to western civilianization and we should consider it that way,” Bush said on Sunday.

Critics say that President Obama’s policy to first and foremost “contain” ISIS within a segment of the Middle East is misguided, and only invites the kind of violence that Paris saw on Friday.

“We have to be in this fight, there is no other option,” Bush said. “And this threat can be contained — but more importantly it will never die unless it’s destroyed.

“And the policy of containment isn’t going to work,” he added, “and it is a policy of incremental, just kind of running out the clock so the next president has to deal with this.”

Many of Bush’s fellow Republican contenders have offered similar criticism about the White House.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton added to the fracas on Saturday, saying during a Democratic presidential debate that the extremist group “cannot be contained.“

“It must be defeated,” she claimed.