Sarah Palin on U.S. Decision on Syria: 'Let Allah Sort It Out'
WASHINGTON - Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin criticized the Obama administration's decision to supply weapons to the rebels in the civil war in Syria today, arguing that the U.S. should "Let Allah sort it out" until there is a stronger leader in the White House.
"Militarily, where is our commander in chief? We're talking now more new interventions. I say until we know what we're doing, until we have a commander in chief who knows what he's doing, well, let these radical Islamic countries who aren't even respecting basic human rights, where both sides are slaughtering each other as they scream over an arbitrary red line, 'Allah Akbar,' I say until we have someone who knows what they're doing, I say let Allah sort it out," Palin said at the Faith and Freedom Coalition Conference.
Earlier this week, the White House announced it confirmed that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime has used chemical weapons in the fight against its own people, and the Obama administration will provide more "direct support" to the Syrian opposition since the president's "red line" has been crossed.
The White House said today that Obama discussed the civil war in Syria with European leaders in a teleconference Friday, and the issue is expected to dominate much of the conversation at the G-8 Summit in Northern Ireland next week.
Palin, speaking at the conclusion of the three-day Faith and Freedom Coalition Conference, also took a swipe at another speaker at the conservative forum, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who argued Friday that one of the reasons to support the Senate's immigration reform plan is because "Immigrants are more fertile."
"I think it's kind of dangerous territory, territory to want to debate this whole one race's fertility rate over another, and I say this from someone who's kind of fertile herself," Palin said. "I don't think that's where we want to go in deciding how will we incentivize the hardworking responsible families who want to live in the light, follow the law, become Americans, versus those whose very first act on our soil is to break the law? There are different ways that we can debate this."
As she warned the conservative crowd of "tyranny" in government, Palin said that the recent scandals involving the Internal Revenue Service and the National Security Agency make the country feel "so Orwellian around here, you know, '1984.'"
Calling Washington, D.C. "one hot mess," Palin also doled out some advice to Congress, who she said should follow the lead of a young senator whom she backed in his 2012 race - Texas. Sen. Ted Cruz.
"You know what I wish Congress would do? If they would just for one week perhaps, put themselves on Cruz control, on Ted Cruz control," Palin said. "Just for a week and let's see where things go. I think we'd see some solutions."
Though she has often served as the butt of jokes on NBC's "Saturday Night Live," Palin joked about the frequency with which the comedy show makes fun of her, saying she's provided an ample amount of jokes and jobs for comedians.
"They should think of me as a friend. For a while there, I was providing more job security for the Tina Feys of the world and doing more for those employment numbers than Obama's ever done," Palin said.