Jo Cox Quotes

ISIS is in many ways a creation of the Syrian regime.

ISIS filled the vacuum in Iraq and Syria created by a lack of effective governance.

To destroy the Islamic State, you have to fix Syria. You have to look at the reasons that created the Islamic State. This is a huge task.

Da'esh and Assad are not separate problems.

President Bashar Assad's regime is in the unique position of being targeted both by Israel and supporters of al Qaeda.

Assad's regime helped ISIS grow by attacking other opposition forces and rarely targeting ISIS.

Syria is attracting a lot more Westerners than the Iraq War ever did because it's the perfect Sunni jihad.

If anything caused ISIS, it was the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.

I've often said that the ISIS-Syria-Iraq mess is about as bad as it could be.

The fall of the Syrian regime is in the interest of America and Israel.

The fate of Syria hangs in the balance, but it is entirely possible that the fall of the Assad regime will result in anarchy and cause Syria to turn into a second Afghanistan, a base for anti-Israel terrorism.

ISIS controls a territory roughly the size of Maryland where 8 million people live. If it's attacked and toppled, who will fill the void?

I blame the Russians for a lot, but pinning the creation of ISIS on them is a murky, tenuous, triple-carom bank shot at best.

The Sunni militants that make up ISIS are not the underlying problem in Syria and Iraq, but rather they are a symptom of other deeper problems.

The deep problems that afflict the Middle East are not easy to fix, but they must be dealt with if we are not to see a son of ISIS, or even a grandson of ISIS, developing in the years to come.

There is no question that what we are seeing - the horrible advance of ISIS - goes back, if you will, to the original sin of the invasion of Iraq.

The answer as to why ISIS gained power and influence, and why stability in the Middle East has disastrously deteriorated, does not require extensive analysis.

The rise of ISIS is a result of - Obama and Clinton making a decision to pull our troops out without preparing Iraq is a colossal mistake.

ISIS did not come down from the sky. They found the opportunity to grow, and the world allowed them to grow.

What happened in Iraq and Syria was that the world remained silent as ISIS expanded.

Iran is not an enemy of ISIS; they have a lot to gain from the turmoil that ISIS creates.

There is little doubt that an unstable Syria will destabilize the whole Middle East.

I've been fighting amidst a lot of opposition from both Hillary Clinton as well as some Republicans who wanted to send arms to the allies of ISIS. ISIS rides around in a billion dollars worth of U.S. Humvees. It's a disgrace. We've got to stop - we shouldn't fund our enemies, for goodness sakes.

The understanding of Syria's devastating civil war has been distorted by the immense danger and difficulty of covering it.

The invasion of Iraq, particularly, gave a big shot in the arm to the jihadi extremists.