Here's what passes for the so-called "moderate" wing of the Republican party. Sen. Marco Rubio criticized the Obama administration for not doing more air strikes in Syria on this Sunday's Meet the Press.

Heaven forbid we take in any of the refugees from that war torn country, but more bombing, that's always the solution to all our problems in Republican-land.:

Rubio has characterized the international effort against Islamic State militants in Iraq as a “clash of civilisations”. On NBC he was asked if such belligerent phrasing might be helpful to Isis, for propaganda purposes.

“If you interpret that phrase as meaning we’re at war with Islam and all Muslims,” he said, “that’s not what I’m saying and it’s ridiculous.”

Rubio also criticised the Obama administration’s handling of the effort against Islamic State and the president’s Oval Office address on the subject last week.

Asked if his calls for more airstrikes, a ground coalition comprising mainly Sunni Arabs and the deployment of US and international special forces were effectively just a more aggressive re-voicing of current White House strategy, he said: “I don’t agree that’s part of their strategy. Maybe rhetorically some of it is, but most of it is not.”

Rubio also said there could be no prospect of working with Iran, because “the Iranian Shia government wants to defeat Isis but for purposes of instituting their version of a global caliphate, their version of an apocalyptic interpretation of Islam”.