by WorldTribune Staff, July 21, 2016
The United States and its allies should target and destroy Islamic State of Iraq and Levant’s (ISIL’s) technology on all fronts and send the terror group “back to the eighth century,” former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said.
“I don’t know how often you have to see 15 women burned alive, how often you have to see people beheaded, how often you have to see people crucified, to decide these are evil people. Great societies have the capacity to destroy evil people if they have the courage to destroy evil people.” Gingrich said on July 20.
Gingrich said that he “would put assets overhead” to ensure that all modern technology in “any area geographically occupied by ISIL” is targeted by airstrikes.
“I would say that the minute you turn on a car — we’re killing you,” Gingrich said. “The minute you have an electric generator — we’re killing you.”
“You’re going to have no electricity so you can’t be on the internet and you’re going to have no cars,” Gingrich said. “By the time we’re done eliminating your vehicles and by the time we’re done eliminating your electricity, if the neighboring folks want to come in and mop you up, that’s fine with us.”
“We’re going to render you literally outside of the modern world,” the former speaker said, adding that ISIL has made it clear that it wants “to go back to the eighth century” and that the United States “should facilitate that.”
“This is the most powerful nation in the history of the world and we’re up against a bunch of guys who are dangerous — they are not a JV team — but they haven’t got real power — they only have the power we tolerate,” he said.
“If we decided to totally degrade their capacity, we could do it in a matter of months, but that would mean the American people would have to decide how ruthless they want to be.”
While saying he has no desire to be named secretary of defense or secretary of state in a Donald Trump administration, Gingrich said he would accept a role as Trump’s “chief planner.”
“I think [Trump] thought I was going to say I would like to be secretary of state or secretary of defense, but those are real jobs and I’m at a stage in my life where I would really just like to be creative,” Gingrich said.
“What I would really like is a letter that says, ‘Gingrich is in power to review any agency in the federal government and report directly to the president.’ ”