Condoleezza Rice: U.S. must step up attacks against ISIS where it lives
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ISIS is a brutal threat to people around the world, and the U.S. must step up military operations to defeat the terrorist group in its homeland, former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said today during a stop in Birmingham.
"They march in columns, they don't hide in caves," Rice said. "If CBS News can find them, the American military can find them. We have to get very serious about this."
Rice, a Birmingham native and currently a business and political science professor at Stanford University, was at the Alabama Theatre to give a keynote address at SEUS Japan 38, an annual conference that draws business and government leaders from Japan and the Southeastern U.S.
During a Q&A session, Rice was asked how she would address ISIS if she were president.
Rice responded by saying there's no tougher job than president of the United States, and she recognizes how hard the choices can be.
But she said it's crucial to defeat the group, which has claimed responsibility for the deadly attacks in Paris on Friday. She added that many people who make up ISIS are European passport holders and some are U.S. passport holders, and that makes them a threat to the U.S. homeland.
"We have to recognize that we cannot allow, in the 21st Century, a group that is so brutal....to occupy a territory between Iraq and Syria about the size of Great Britain," Rice said.
Rice also noted that French authorities are very good at counter-terrorism, and the fact that they could be surprised in this way suggests a level of danger that even she did not know was possible.
In addition to stepping up U.S. military operations where ISIS lives, Rice advocated the use of government surveillance against terrorist targets and cited the need to create safe havens in the area of Turkey for innocent Syrians fleeing the violence.
"We cannot sustain the number of migrants flowing into Europe," she said. "We must stop the flow by making them safe in their own homeland."
Rice, who served as secretary of state and national security advisor under former President George W. Bush, said during her speech that transnational terrorism is a key threat to free markets and free people around the world.
That post-World War II system, which has led to peace and prosperity and lifted millions of people out of poverty, has faced other challenges, too, including the 2008 global financial crisis.
And there is more work to do, Rice said, citing violent uprisings in the Middle East.
"People are tired of being kept from the dignity that allows them to make their own choices," she said.
The free market system presents many opportunities, Rice added, particularly in the fields of innovation and technology. Both can help bring education and medical care to all people, no matter where they live.
Rice said economies are fostered by central governments that do just a few things: implement tax policies that encourage business growth, take a light hand with regulation and keep the people and environment safe. Then the responsibility rests with state, local or provincial leaders, along with the business community.
"We can have a new vision, one even greater than the system they gave us after World War II," she said. "Everyone can pursue happiness and freedom and peace."