Sounding like a candidate for Secretary State in a Hillary Clinton administration, Wendy Sherman, a former top State Department official, said Republicans should get serious about combating the Islamic State.
Sherman, the former under secretary of state for political affairs who played a key role in a nuclear deal that aims to freeze Iran’s nuclear program, warned against a fear-driven foreign policy.
“We have to be, actually as Secretary Clinton has said, about resolve, not about fear,” Sherman said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“The president, and quite frankly the Democratic candidates, have talked about a multi-pronged strategy, not just slogans,” said Sherman. “But a multi-pronged strategy that not only defeats ISIL but stops recruitment, stops financing of ISIL, makes sure that you take care of this not only for the immediate but for the long-term as well.”
Sherman denounced what stand-in “Meet the Press” host Andrea Mitchell described as anti-Muslim rhetoric by Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.
Trump has called for banning Muslims from entering the United States. Cruz is among GOP candidates who oppose allowing Syrian refugees to enter the country.
Such rhetoric “is incredibly dangerous,” Sherman said.
“This kind of Islamophobia is really playing right into the recruitment by the jihadis of people from all over the world,” she said. “It is alienating the very people that we need to be working with us.”
Sherman left the State Department in October, joining Harvard University’s Institute of Politics as a fellow.
