Hillary Clinton said Thursday that even if the Islamic State attacked America on U.S. soil, it would still be a “mistake” to send troops to Syria.
In response to a question about whether an attack on America would make it impossible for the U.S. to resist sending troops to Syria, Clinton said it should still be avoided.
“It would grow but it would certainty be a mistake,” Clinton said about the pressure political leaders would face. “As I said, we should grow our operators, we should be empowering our trainers in Iraq and we should be leading an air coalition using both fighter planes and drones.”
After the attacks in Paris last Friday, the Islamic State threatened that Washington, D.C., would be next, followed by threats to attack New York City.
“We have a lot of work to do to really decimate ISIS in Iraq and Syria. But we’ve got to work with Kurds on both sides of the border. We’ve got to figure out how if possible to have a second Arab awakening … and injecting some large amount of American forces complicates that in some respects,” Clinton said. “Right now we’ve got to keep the pressure on the people on the ground and get them to change their priorities and work together.”
Clinton’s plan to combat the Islamic State involves air raids, but no American troops on the ground. She also advocated for Congress to “swiftly pass an updated authorization to use military force.” In the region, and around the globe, Clinton would target neighborhoods and gathering places where radicalization occurs to try and prevent the spread of harmful ideology. But she said we should not be going after only Muslims.
“Let’s be clear: Islam is not our adversary,” Clinton said. “Muslims are peaceful and tolerant people and have nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism.”
She concluded, “We should have no illusions about how difficult the mission before us really is.”
