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GOP Candidates Are Unserious about the Islamic State

The Republican candidates for president, judging by the debates this evening, are unserious when it comes to the Islamic State. They talk tough, but if you were listening for specifics about what they plan to do about the metastasizing terror state that has filled the gap left in the Middle East by a withdrawing United States, you didn't hear much.

Several candidates—Cruz, Carson, and earlier Jindal—made the case that the Obama administration's political correctness gets in the way of calling the enemy by its true name of radical Islam. That's true, but at this advanced stage of an extremely dangerous crisis, the voters deserve more. Carson even took the tack of saying we "shouldn't broadcast" our plans, which sounded an awful lot like an excuse for not revealing that he doesn't have a plan. Cruz offered General Martin Dempsey, the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs, some well deserved criticism for saying that there is no military solution to the problem of the Islamic State, and then reminded viewers about some decent proposals he had made in the Senate regarding the threat of radicalized Americans returning from the battlefield. But he concluded with nothing but more tough, empty talk about IS fighters signing their own death warrants.

An exception to this rule, as expected, was Lindsey Graham, who took the opportunity in the second string to be specific, calling explicitly for the U.S. to be part of a coalition to go after IS on the ground in Syria. It would have been a more effective pitch if he didn't seem so deeply uncomfortable on the stage, swaying uncomfortably from side to side, nervously checking his notes, and looking as though he had just heard about a death in the family.

A national security surprise for the evening came not on the issue of IS, but Russia, and from a candidate for whom foreign affairs are meant to be a weak spot: Scott Walker. When asked about Russia, Walker got very specific, calling for arming the Ukrainian military, deploying troops to Poland, and establishing a strong missile defense system in Eastern Europe. Christie offered some hard and reassuring numbers on troop levels and rebuilding the Navy, and Huckabee, as could have been expected, took a hard line on transgender issues in the armed forces, saying "the military is not a social experiment."

It will be interesting to hear these governors tangle more with Marco Rubio, a man who, by virtue of being in the Senate, has had more exposure to foreign policy issues than they have. And it was reassuring to hear a governor like Walker speak fluently on a long term strategic threat like Russia. But IS poses a dangerous threat that needs to be dealt with, right now. Is anyone other than Lindsey Graham going to tell the American people the truth about what it's going to take to keep the country safe?