Mesabi Daily News - Nolan Consistent in Views on Middle East

News Article

By Bill Hanna

As the military drums beat louder for more U.S. action against the Islamic State, 8th District U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan still holds to his unwavering assessment of the Middle East.

"Are they a threat to the United States?" the congressman recently repeated the reporter's question before answering it.

"They are as long as we remain engaged in the Middle East conflict. If we ever wake up and get out, they will not be a threat," Nolan said in a recent interview.

This is not a new revelation from the congressman, who has voiced similar views on the volatile Middle East since he re-entered politics in 2012 to run for the 8th District House seat.

But his recent comments, showing absolute consistency on the issue, come in the wake of the Islamic State's savage killings of thousands of Christians and Muslims and its insatiable appetite for more territory.

"We have no friends there, other than Israel. People we are supporting in Syria and Saudi (Arabia) have been doing beheadings for decades or longer," Nolan said.

The congressman said the target on the United States just gets bigger and bigger with more military involvement.

"There's a lot of evil there. The government in Egypt and the military coup in Libya slaughtered hundreds of people. It's one continuous fight and slaughter.

"And when we get involved we're a target that just grows more and more. The more we go in with larger forces we create larger anti-forces," Nolan said.

The congressman said he was "disappointed" by President Barack Obama's congressional request for a War Powers Act.

"Going to war is a very serious matter. You shouldn't go unless you feel a survival existence sense of morality is at stake. You need to go in it to win it," said Nolan, who added there are great divisions regarding how to deal with the Islamic State.

Nolan's realistic assessment of the muddled and bloody situation does not offer a lot of hope for a good resolution.

"We need to start using some common sense. We hope to stop them from evil deeds ... but we're in bed with groups every bit as evil.

"If we expect them to gravitate to a capitalistic society that just ain't gonna happen. I pity the poor Americans who try to collaborate with them," Nolan said.

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