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ARTHEL NEVILLE: A live look again on the streets of Paris. Where it is 6:15 p.m. there. Crowds, more than a million strong are marching in a huge display of solidarity in the wake of this week's attacks. But the question now is are we doing enough to protect the United States and its allies. Joining me now is Ohio Congressman Mike Turner. He is President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly and of course, France is a close NATO ally and a partner in the U.S.-led coalition in the war against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. They were first to join the air campaign against ISIS in Iraq. That's where I want to start, Congressman. So much focus has been on ISIS. Has the U.S. taken its eye off of al-Qaeda?
REP. MIKE TURNER: Well I think we've taken our eye off the ball. And certainly our NATO allies and the United States need to go back and rededicate themselves. If you look at Chapter 12 of the 9/11 Commission Report, it says we need a global strategy to fight terrorism and that this is not just generic terrorism. It’s Islamic terrorism and that this is going to require looking beyond al-Qaeda, looking beyond Osama Bin Laden, to the entire terrorist network that is supporting these Islamic terrorists. And I think, to some extent, we have not remained vigilant and we're seeing the outcome of that.
ARTHEL NEVILLE: So I ask then, what role do you think the U.S. should play in leading this international war on terrorism and what has to be the new strategy?
REP. MIKE TURNER: Absolutely. I think the President needs to take the lead here. Because the report specifically says that you cannot call this generic terrorism. You have to understand that it’s Islamic terrorism and that you need a global strategy because they have a global strategy. So the President of the United States needs to come back to looking at how we can pull our allies together, make certain there aren't sanctuaries, that we track these organizations down—their funding their weapons, the individuals who support them—and dismantle these networks. You can see from what happened in Iraq. As we walk away, the vacuum is filled by their infrastructure and we need to take this infrastructure down.
ARTHEL NEVILLE: And you make a point there, Congressman, that words are important, semantics are important. Clearly, ISIS, al-Qaeda, whoever they are, they are doing a really good job with semantics. they're doing a great job using the internet and they're really getting the ire up of their base. So to your point, our leaders need to get the ire up. I think Americans are tired of some of the passiveness that appears to be passive. I don't want to suggest that the Administration's not doing anything, but there needs to be more fire in the belly.
REP. MIKE TURNER: Absolutely. I mean when you look at trying to defeat your enemy, you first have to understand who your enemy is and how your enemy views you. I think in this instance—Chapter 12 of the 9/11 Commission Report gave a warning. It said that if we only look at this as a fight against Osama bin Laden or al-Qaeda, that the world will not be safe—that this is a growing threat that has to be identified and has to be met with a global strategy, led by the United States and with our allies.