Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina called for a major escalation of the United State’s military in Eastern Europe and the Mideast when asked about foreign policy during Wednesday’s GOP debates.
“Having met Vladimir Putin, I wouldn’t talk to him at all. We’ve talked way too much to him,” said Fiorina about the Russian president.
Instead of diplomacy, Fiorina advocates for U.S. military expansion and saber rattling with Russia. If president, Fiorina says she’d “immediately” work to put missiles in Poland, run regular military exercises in the Baltic, up troops in Germany, and “rebuild” the Mediterranean-stationed Sixth Fleet , which has shrunk from 40 ships to one command cruiser and one intelligence ship.
In 2009, President Barack Obama scrapped plans to place medium and long-range missiles in Poland . The Russians were nervous about a U.S. missile installation so close to their border and threatened to build a missile array in Kaliningrad if the U.S. went through with the plan.
“What I would do immediately is begin rebuilding the Sixth Fleet. I would begin rebuilding the missile defense program in Poland. I would conduct regular aggressive military exercises in the Baltic states. I’d probably send a few thousand more soldiers into Germany,” said Fiorina.
Fiorina then cited a meeting between Iranian General Qasem Soleimani — the leader of Iran’s revolutionary Qud forces — and Russian President Putin as the reason Russia supplies aid to Syria. But the claim isn’t verifiable; it originates from a single anonymous source acquired by the Israeli news site Ynetnews .
“The reason it is so critically important that every one of us know General [Qasem] Soleimani’s name is because Russia is in Syria right now because the head of the Quds force traveled to Russia and talked Vladimir Putin into aligning themselves with Iran and Syria to prop up [Syrian President] Bashar al-Assad,” said Fiorina.
When it came to the Middle East, Fiorina said the U.S. should arm the Kurds, give military intelligence to the Egyptians, and supply “bombs and materials” to the Jordanians.
“We could arm the Kurds, they’ve been asking for 3 years. All of this is in our control.”
When the topic drifted to ISIS, Fiorina listed numbers of troops and armaments that the U.S. military “needs” and pushed for improved nuclear bombers, intercontinental ballistic missiles, and submarines capable of launching a nuclear strike.
“We need about 50 army brigades, we need about 36 marine battalions, we need somewhere between 300-350 naval ships. We need to upgrade every leg of the nuclear triad,” declared Fiorina.
[Image via Justin Sullivan /Getty Images]
