Bolton, Sununu: UAE Pullout Result of Lack of US Leadership
Wednesday, 04 Feb 2015 09:11 PM
By Greg Richter
The United Arab Emirates' decision to stop flying airstrikes over Syria one day after a Jordanian pilot was shot down and captured by the Islamic State (ISIS) is the result of failed American leadership in the effort, former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton and former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu told Fox News.
"I think it underlines the lack of effective American involvement," Bolton said Wednesday on Fox News Channel's "On the Record with Greta Van Susteren."
The UAE wanted assurance that if their pilots were shot down they'd have a chance of being rescued, Bolton said. The 26-year-old Jordanian pilot was burned alive, with a video of his grisly death released by ISIS on Tuesday.
UAE is not a completely full-service military entity, Bolton said, but it was prepared to fully engage alongside the United States against its principal adversary, Iran.
"So when they face ISIS and they don't have search-and rescue capabilities… they ask their friend and ally the United States for it," Bolton said. "They weren't getting the answer they should have as an ally"
Sununu, also appearing on Van Susteren's show, said President Barack Obama's response to ISIS has been delayed, timid and ineffective.
"UAE did what they did because they want to join with a U.S. that leads, not a U.S. that tries to follow from behind."
The United States is not showing energy in its fight against terrorism, Sununu said.
"I wish that the president had shown a little of the energy that King Abdullah did after that horrible thing that ISIS did to the Jordanian pilot," he said.
Less than 24 hours after the video's release, Jordan executed two ISIS members it had previously convicted and sentenced to death.
"I wish the president had showed that emotion when my poor New Hampshire colleague Jim Foley suffered the same kind of fate," said Sununu, referring to the American journalist who was beheaded by ISIS last year.
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