Former pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson was asked by Greta van Susteren last night what he thought about Obama’s prayer breakfast remarks that “compared medieval Christian crusaders to ISIS’s ruthless terror tactics of beheading and burning people alive,” and Carson didn’t pull any punches:
“I believe [Obama] is attempting to say that these people are no worse than other people have been in the past – that is absolutely irrelevant,” said Carson, who catapulted onto the national stage when he gave a now-famous speech at the National Prayer Breakfast in 2013. “Because we are dealing with an evil in today's world, that is threatening Christians and people who don't believe like they do. And if we allow it to continue to grow, it will be a big tree with lots of branches and roots, rather than a bush as it is now.”
Carson, who many believe will run for the Republican nomination in 2016, said: “Obviously, any atrocities that are committed in the name of religion at any time in history are horrible. And none should be used to justify what is going on today.”
Van Susteren asked Carson how he would deal with ISIS, and Carson answered, “Well, I would use every resource that we have to eradicate the threat while it is still in its adolescent stage. That means using banking facilities, using every military apparatus that we have, recognizing where their source of income comes from and trying to shut that off, that might include oil. We need to use every resource to eradicate them now before they get too big to eradicate.”
She then asked him why he would want the “thankless” job of being President, and Carson said: “Well, I don't know that anybody would really want it, but the reason I would be willing it to do it is because I recognize that our country is at a crossroads. And we're in the process of forgetting who we are and why we were created.”
“This is supposed to be a country for of and by the people where the government conforms to the will of the people,” Carson said. “We have turned that completely around. My whole life has been dedicated to giving life and improving life. I thought I was going to retire and enjoy life. I can't enjoy it watching what's happening to my country… I think that we're losing our freedoms. We are losing our understanding of what freedom actually is….We are also throwing away our values, our beliefs, again, for the sake of political correctness.”