The 2016 Presidential campaign of Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal has struggled to gain a foothold amid the popularity among other candidates, including businessman Donald Trump and retired neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson. Since Jindal’s support in polls has barely registered, it’s led him to try and make his case through the media.
That strategy can sometimes become a problem as it did after Jindal’s television appearance on the ABC Sunday morning news program “This Week” on October 11, which was guest hosted by Martha Raddatz. Jindal was asked a number of foreign policy questions, specifically dealing with issues in the Middle East, and was corrected by Raddatz on multiple occasions.
Raddatz asked Jindal about the Obama administration’s attempt to train Kurd rebels in Syria to fight the ever-growing problem of the terrorist group ISIS, with Jindal’s assessment of the situation being that the project has been a failure.
Saying that the administration didn’t train the Kurds aggressively enough, and failed to arm them properly, Jindal also stated that Obama “dithered” too long, which left the United States with limited considerations on how to proceed.
Raddatz countered by saying that the Kurds were more concerned with overthrowing the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, which meant that they had little motivation to take on the dangerous task of fighting ISIS.
Going back to his original point, Jindal then stated that the United States should be providing arms and training the Kurds. However, he then made a major error when he stated that the administration should set up with Turkey and the other allies a “No-Fly” zone.
That’s because Raddatz then pointed out that ISIS has no aircraft, which makes such a policy pointless, while also asking Jindal when the policy had worked in the past.
Despite the contradiction, Jindal continued to offer the concept of the “No-Fly” zone, saying that it would eliminate the huge problem of refugees leaving Syria. That was countered by Raddatz, who noted that the issue of violence on the ground was the main reason for the flight of the refugees.
Finally, Jindal criticized what he perceived as the administration’s unwillingness to eliminate members of ISIS. After pointing out that thousands of airstrikes have already taken place in the country, Raddatz noted that ISIS is not a traditional army, so previous strategies wouldn’t be sufficient to defeat them
Raddatz stated that she had been in Syria on an aircraft carrier when fighter jets would return without having dropped any of the bombs that were attached. That was because the ISIS strategy of maintaining a strong presence in populated areas prevented the dropping of bombs on them, since the alternative would be to kill many innocent residents of that area.
Jindal has been governor of Louisiana since 2008 and was among the many politicians considered by Sen. John McCain to be his running mate in that year’s presidential election.
His poll numbers as governor have dropped over the span of the last seven years, while the numbers connected to his presidential campaign have never gotten above low single digits. That’s meant that he’s been twice relegated to the early debate among Republican contenders for the 2016 nomination, which has meant that much fewer people have listened to his overall message.