After speaking to a raucous crowd of 400 conservative activists and bloggers at the RedState Gathering in Fort Worth, Texas, tea party darling and Republican rebel, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz sat down to talk about the Obama Administration’s foreign policy.

Today the U.S. military began their second round of targeted airstrikes against ISIS, the fanatical terrorist organization that has taken over large portions of Kurdistan in Northern Iraq. Senator Cruz said that the President’s actions in Iraq are a “manifestation of President Obama’s failed leadership,” and criticized the administration for having no clearly defined goal.

“What seems to be missing is any clearly defined objective. That also has been a unifying theme of the Obama foreign policy. It pursues an issue for the purpose of a press release, not for the purpose of achieving a defended military objective. At this point it is incumbent upon the President to explain what is his strategy? What is the military engagement that he is proposing? What are we trying to accomplish?”

Cruz insisted that the three American priorities in Iraq should be the protection of Americans currently in the country, “significantly degrading” ISIS and that “under no circumstances should we be partnering with Iran.”

“The enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my friend. ISIS are radical Islamic terrorists that want to kill us. The Mullahs of Iran are also radical Islamic terrorists that want to kill us.”

In strong words against the White House, Cruz said “The Obama-Clinton foreign policy is an absolute failure. I wish the president’s foreign policy were playing at the junior varsity level.”

On Russia’s aggressive actions in the Ukraine and Crimea, Cruz lashed out at the President saying, “Putin is playing chess. Obama is playing checkers. Putin is not a complicated man, he’s a KGB thug and he has been very candid about his intentions. He is working assiduously to reassemble as much as possible of the Soviet Union.”

Senator Cruz said the Obama-Clinton foreign policy “has been consistently to alienate and abandon our friends and allies, while at the same time trying to appease our enemies.” In another reference to Obama’s handling of Russia’s Vladimir Putin he said, “President Obama does not understand that bullies and tyrants don’t respect weakness. They don’t respect appeasement and all it produces is more aggression and more danger.”

In what may be a preview of a 2016 message to come, he closed by saying, “We need a president who will stand up and defend U.S. national security interests and speak for freedom. Reagan did both, Obama does neither.”