Rick Santorum: Obama and Bush Have 'Given All Muslims A Pass'

— -- Former Republican senator and presidential candidate Rick Santorum sharply criticized President Obama’s management of conflict in the Middle East today, saying both Obama and President George W. Bush have “given all Muslims a pass” by refusing to connect radical militant activity to the faith itself.

Speaking at Liberty University’s convocation, Santorum, a possible 2016 presidential candidate who now runs a Christian film studio, said Presidents Bush and Obama have “identified the enemy by what they do, not who they are and what they want to accomplish.”

“I’m not saying all Muslims are terrorists, but we have an obligation to face the truth about who the enemy is and what they want to accomplish,” Santorum said.

“By not correctly identifying these Islamists for who they are, they’ve given all Muslims a pass for identifying a cancer within their own body,” he said. “We don’t help them treat that illness when we refuse to identify that their body is sick.”

Santorum said Obama was not “devoting the resources” to stopping ISIS militants in Iraq and Syria. On Friday, the White House announced the deployment of 1,500 additional U.S. troops to Iraq as advisers, more than doubling the number of Americans on the ground there.

He also slammed ongoing nuclear negotiations with Iran, saying “no piece of paper” would stop a country “determined to develop a nuclear weapon.”