The former Secretary of State spoke to the need to “identify and eliminate ISIS command and control” which is a strategy commonly known as “decapitation” as well as its “economic lifelines”.
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“After a major attack, every society faces a choice between fear and resolve”. “Therefore we must choose resolve. And we must lead a world to meet this threat”.
“This is their fight and they need to act like it. So far, however, Turkey has been more focused on the Kurds than on countering ISIS”.
We can’t refuse Syrians fleeing ISIS because “that is just not who we are”, Clinton said, stealing one of Obama’s all-purpose catchphrases. “The United States has been conducting this fight for more than a year; it’s time to be begin a new phase and intensify and broaden our efforts”.
Clinton’s proposal still doesn’t include combat boots on the ground, as a few Republican presidential nominees have proposed.
In the aftermath of the attacks in Paris, which French authorities say were planned by Islamic State militants, the question of how to combat the group has become central to the presidential campaign.
Sanders on Thursday delivered his most extensive remarks on the Islamic State group at the tail end of an hourlong speech at Georgetown University, after mostly sidestepping the topic during Saturday’s Democratic debate.
Her views could appeal to centrist voters and independents who care more about national security more than the average Democratic voter.
Clinton did not say how many additional special forces should be deployed. A strong majority of both groups opposed a Trump presidency.
Clinton recently addressed the Council on Foreign Relations, a famous worldwide affairs think tank, about the relationship between terrorism and Islam.
But her speech and comments were rife with examples of where she differed with her former boss, from having advocated arming the Syrian rebels early on in the conflict to calling today for a no-fly zone in Syria on Friday.
“Most urgent is stopping the flow of foreign fighters to and from the war zones of the Middle East”, Clinton told CNN.
Clinton was also not shy in doling out tough love to US friends and acid to enemies in another possible preview of her possible administration. “… The United States must work with Europe to dramatically and immediately improve intelligence sharing and counterterrorism coordination”.
She noted that though the first Sunni Awakening was successful, the former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki “betrayed” and forgot the tribes that rose up against Al Qaeda (which led Bloomberg columnist Eli Lake to point out that the same statement could be made about US President Barack Obama).
“No, I am not a pacifist”. I don’t think we’re at war with all Muslims.
Clinton also called for an USA “intelligence surge” in the Middle East.
She also indicated that hers will be a different brand of leadership than Obama, who has been roundly criticized for a declaring shortly before last week’s attacks in Paris that the Islamic State had been “contained”.
“Yes, we are at war with those people”.
She sensibly poured cold war on attempts by the Obama administration to claim that Russia’s intervention can be a force for good: “President Putin is actually making things somewhat worse”, she said, again seeming to disavow one of her prior policies without explanation – in this case the “reset” with Russian Federation.
Though the President seemed to have Clinton’s support on the issue, that wasn’t the case for the rest of his party.
Obama stated at the White House: “They are not religious leaders; they are terrorists”. She’ll just defeat ISIS, apparently, and then maybe get lunch.
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Showing similar regard for Syrian sovereignty, Clinton called for the deployment of more U.S. and allied special forces in the country, where they would back the “viable Syrian opposition units” now being supplied with weapons and ammunition by Washington.
