Carson advises U.S. to secure its own oxygen mask first

Ben Carson's foreign policy has come under heavy scrutiny, and at Tuesday night's debate he made an airplane trip analogy to regime changes in the Middle East.

"Dr. Carson, is the Middle East better off with dictators?" asked CNN moderator Wolf Blitzer.

"No one is better off with dictators, but there comes a time when you're on an airplane they always say in case of an emergency an oxygen mask will drop down. Put yours on first and then administer help to your neighbor. We need oxygen right now," Carson responded. "And we need to start thinking about the needs of the American people before we go and try to solve everybody else's problems. The fact of the matter is the Middle East has been in turmoil for thousands of years and for us to think that we're going to go in there and fix that with couple of little bombs and a few little decorations is relatively foolish."

Minutes before, Carson appeared to advocate for a more interventionist approach to foreign policy. Carson criticized America's "phobia about boots on the ground" and said the U.S. must be willing to put boots on the ground to defeat the Islamic State if military leaders deem it necessary.

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