Carson Campaign Press Release - Dr. Ben Carson Outlines Plan to Protect America; Calls for Declaration of War Against ISIS

Alexandria, Va. - December 15, 2015 - Today, Dr. Ben Carson, retired neurosurgeon and 2016 Republican presidential candidate, issued the following statement and announced "Seven Steps to a Safer America," his plan to defeat the Islamic State and protect the U.S. homeland.

"Our country faces grave national security threats. We must act boldly and decisively to protect American citizens from terrorists at home and abroad," said Dr. Carson. "We can no longer dawdle while ISIS continues to persecute Christians, enslave young girls, oppress civil societies and perpetrate terrorist attacks against the free world. We must destroy their caliphate and prevent their terrorists from infiltrating our homeland. We must also secure our borders, identify radical Islamic extremism by name and root out its agents and collaborators in our own country. My 'Seven Steps for a Safer America' offers a path forward for confronting these threats and protecting this great country."

The plan calls for the following actions to be taken.

1. Congress should immediately issue a formal declaration of war on the Islamic State, which is also known as ISIL or ISIS.

2. The United States should lead the immediate formation of — and provide substantial advisory, financial and military support to — a military coalition in the Middle East to wage war against ISIS. Such a regional coalition would consist of countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.

3. The United States should urge its allies and partners in the Middle East to engage in massive recruitment and training of Sunni Syrian men based in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf and of Sunni Syrian male refugees in Jordan — to establish a military force to destroy ISIS and to establish a protection zone for the victims of the terrorist state.

4. The United States should deploy its military resources and work with moderate Arab nations — as well as extend strategic support to Kurdish, Christian and Sunni tribes in the free al-Hasakah Province in northeast Syria — to establish a refugee safe zone in the Province. All refugees should be directed to that free area and to other liberated areas later, and be put under international protection.

5. Congress should immediately establish a war-time emergency visa and immigration policy; establish an emergency inter-agency task force to review all visa and immigration policies; and limit visitor visas to three months with mandatory check-ins for extensions no longer than three months.

6. President Barack Obama and Congress should immediately deploy the National Guard and military troops to patrol the U.S. southern border as well as designated spots along the northern border.

7. The Department of State should designate the Muslim Brotherhood and other organizations that propagate or support Islamic terrorism as terrorist organizations, and fully investigate the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood and a supporter of terrorism.