France's former President Nicolas Sarkozy has called on Arab powers to send ground forces to Syria in order to fight Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists.
According to France 24 he made the call when on a visit to the United Arab Emirates where he gave a talk at a policy center. He described the current fight against the terror group as equivalent to a "third world war," in which the "total annihilation of extremists, jihadists and terrorists," is a must.
The November 13 attacks in Paris showed, in his view, that "there can be no such thing as a compromise between us and them."
"We have to wage a total war and wage it now. We need to wipe these savages from the face of the earth," he declared.
While the coalition arrayed against ISIS does "need to strike from the air," there also needs to be an occupation "on the ground."
"Troops on the ground are necessary and they can only be Arab," he insisted. "This is first and foremost your war ... and it is a war between civilization and barbarity."
