Marco Rubio discusses the attacks on Paris on ABC's 'This Week'. Rubio sees a 'clash of civilizations'

Republican presidential hopeful Marco Rubio on Sunday called the conflict between Western nations and the Islamic State a “clash of civilizations” and criticized Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton for failing to say the U.S. was at war with radical Islam.

“I don’t understand it,” the Florida senator said on ABC’s “This Week” after host George Stephanopoulos played a video clip of the former secretary of state saying she didn’t believe the U.S. was “at war with Islam” during the Democratic presidential debate Saturday night in Des Moines, Iowa.


“That would be like saying we weren’t at war with Nazis,” Rubio said, “because we were afraid to offend some Germans who may have been members of the Nazi Party but weren’t violent themselves.”

"This is a clash of civilizations...There is no middle ground on this." he said. "Either they win or we win. And we need to begin to take this seriously. These are individuals motivated by their faith."

“Of course, not all Muslims are not members of violent jihadist groups,” Rubio added. “But there is a global jihadist movement in the world, motivated by their interpretation of Islam, in this case Sunni Islam, in the case of ISIS, and it needs to be confronted for what it is. This is not a geopolitical movement. It’s a religiously oriented movement.”

Asked what he’d do if he were president, Rubio called for stepping up support for the Kurds, whom he called “the best fighters on the ground.” He also said he favored an “increased number of special operations attacks,” targeting leaders of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

But he did not endorse sending 10,000 U.S. troops to Syria, as his GOP presidential rival, South Carolina Sen. Lindsay Graham, has, saying it was “premature” to discuss the exact number of troops needed.