She said: “It was not useful to go back and re-plough old ground”. In February alone, Republican candidates will hold four debates – as many as the entire remaining Democratic primary debate schedule.
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Overall, the speech was as fluid and comprehensive as any Clinton speech usually is.
On one level, Clinton’s address at the Council on Foreign Relations was her entry into the demolition derby of 2016 candidates fighting to prove they’re tougher and rougher than Obama on national security.
A major terrorist attack in Paris caused Hillary Clinton and Trump to espouse hawkish talking points about defeating ISIS.
Clinton told the Council on Foreign Relations in NY she would intensify the fight against Daesh if she is elected president next year.
“It would certainly grow, but I think it would be a mistake”, she said, noting her support for sending in more USA special forces, empowering US trainers in Iraq and the use of an air coalition in the region.
Former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley replied to Ms Clinton’s comment by saying “this actually is America’s fight” and self-described socialist and Vietnam War objector Senator Bernie Sanders was at his most animated when he said: “This world, with American leadership, can and must come together to destroy [IS]”.
A moment later, Clinton agreed. The administration has already rejected such a step and many Democrats – including Sanders – believe it would suck America into another Middle East quagmire. Further, she insisted that these countries end their funding of terrorist organizations.
“Three, harden our defenses and those of our allies against external and homegrown threats”, Clinton said.
Clinton also was clear about protecting the United States from ISIS as well as homegrown terrorists that might be sympathetic to the terrorist group.
“No, I am not a pacifist”.
Sanders conceded that “international terrorism is a major issue” that must be addressed. She herself opposed that surge.
Speaking just before fellow candidate U.S. Sen.
Asked to compare her personal and professional qualities to those of Sanders, Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters in the survey preferred Clinton by about 3-to-1 or higher ratios in a number of key areas: combating Islamic terrorism, having the life experience to be president, and knowing how to get things done in office.
On the issue of whether or not the USA should accept Syrian refugees, Clinton has advocated going further than Obama and accepting 65,000 refugees. “It is time to begin a new phase…to smash the would-be caliphate”, she said, as quoted by Bloomberg News.
But Hillary Clinton, Obama’s former secretary of state, might not exactly agree.
Also, a foreign donor controversy lends questions as to how autonomous President Clinton will be pertaining to foreign policy decisions.
Voters who think the United States is at war with radical Islamic terrorism are evenly divided over the question of whether ISIS represents true Islamic beliefs.
“We must ask more from those countries in the Gulf region”, he said.
The majority of the money – US$2 billion – has gone to the Clinton Foundation, one of the world’s fastest-growing charities, which supports health, education and economic development initiatives around the globe.
Meanwhile, Republicans in Washington pushed legislation toward approval that would establish new hurdles for Syrian and Iraqi refugees trying to enter the U.S. Obama has promised a veto, but his top aides struggled Thursday to limit Democratic defections.
She called on the Republican-controlled Congress to approve the use of ground troops against ISIL, emphasizing that doing so would signal “that the U.S. is committed to this fight”. “It’s not natural for her. But she’s got really good people who work for her who speak for her, and she’s very, very appreciative when she knows someone has done something for her. And you know it’s honest”.
Clinton said the group should be denied control of territory in Iraq and Syria. “We can’t outsource this”.
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But he said Clinton was “quite sanguine about our ability to micromanage political change in Syria and Iraq (in a way that) seems to fly in the face of our unsuccessful efforts to do that previously in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya”.
