Rick Perry at CPAC: ISIS 'Apocalyptic,' Wants to Bring World Back to Seventh Century
Continuing with the rain of criticism toward the Obama administration's foreign policy pouring out of this week's Conservative Political Action Conference, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry wasted no time in his Friday morning speech jumping on the president for ignoring the "Apocalyptic" threat to America posed by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
Perry, who has claimed he is "ready" for a potential 2016 presidential run, told the crowd that the Islamic State, also called ISIS or ISIL, is a far scarier threat than the president is leading Americans to believe.
ISIS, which has conquered large swaths of Iraq and Syria and has released propaganda videos threatening the very existence of the Western world, is not a threat that America simply can half-heartedly fight because the group's ultimate goal is to bring the world back to "seventh century," Perry claimed.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
"At no time in our years has the future been more uncertain and the world more dangerous than it is today," the 64-year-old former Air Force captain asserted. "Let's be very, very clear about who ISIS is and what they represent. They are a religious movement that seeks to take the world back to the seventh century; their aims are apocalyptic."
Perry added that the Islamic State is not just a threat to non-Muslim religious groups like Christians and Jews, but the group is also a clear threat to other Muslims, as ISIS has continuously killed Muslims and Imams within its strongholds that have disagreed with their policies and lack of regard for human rights.
"They mean to cleanse the world not just of Christians and Jews, but Muslims who disagree with their extreme ideology," Perry said. "It is their stated vow to kill as many Americans as possible."
Like most other potential 2016 presidential Republican candidates who have spoken at CPAC 2015, such as fellow Texan, Sen. Ted Cruz, Perry chastised the Obama for failing to identify ISIS as an Islamic threat.
"ISIS represents the worst threat to freedom since communism. If Egypt and Jordan recognize that [ISIS] is radical Islam, isn't it time that our president proclaim the same?" Perry asked. "He said [ISIS isn't] a religious movement. He is simply wrong. To deny the fundamental religious nature of the threat … it is naive and it is dangerous."
Perry continued by saying that Obama was wrong when he claimed during his State of the Union address in late January that the U.S. has stopped the spread of ISIS.
"It is time for the American people to hear the truth. The president declares in the State of the Union that the advance of ISIS has been stopped and that is simply not true," Perry contends. "This administration's incompetence in Iraq and Syria have allowed for the emergence of ISIS. They have American tanks. They are using American weapona and ISIS began taking cities that, just a few years ago, were secured by American blood."
Perry also spoke on the possible threat of a nuclear Iran and the reports that the Obama administration and Iran are negotiating a nuclear arms deal that could give Iran authority to obtain nuclear weapons over a certain number of years if they meet treaty requirements. Perry ecstatically asserted that the U.S. should never make a deal that would allow Iran to eventually have nuclear weapons.
According to a poll conducted last year, 68 percent of Americans believe that should Iran acquire nuclear weapons, they will use them to attack the U.S. Meanwhile, 82 percent of Americans believe that Iran would use nuclear weapons to attack Israel.
"I believe it is fundamentally dangerous to bring Iran's nuclear ambitions diplomatic cover," Perry said. "Our discussions with Iran should be governed by two non-negotiable principles. Iran should not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons period. Number two, Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish state."
New York Times bestselling author of the book series The Last Jihad, Joel Rosenberg, recently spoke at the National Religious Broadcasters' Convention and claimed that Iran has "apocalyptic" aims with nuclear weapons. He contends that Iran wants to build up its nuclear arms program so that it use them to destroy Israel and the United States so that it can pave the way for the "Islamic Messiah."
