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Hillary Clinton Speaks At Stanford About Defeating ISIS

By Nancy Bailey
Published on: 07:28 PST, Mar 23, 2016

Hillary Clinton spoke today at Stanford University, her daughter Chelsea’s alma mater, in a discussion about counterterrorism. The hastily arranged visit follows in the wake of Tuesday’s deadly attacks in Brussels. The bombings, which were coordinated by members of ISIS at the airport and hub of public transport, managed to shut down the city amidst massive chaos. The Islamic State group’s attacks, the most devastating since they bombed Paris in November, have left 34 people dead and 230 injured.

Clinton slammed Republicans for their “wrong” and “dangerous” responses to ISIS, according to a report by Nick Gass in Politico. This was in response to both Trump and Cruz suggesting a smackdown on Muslim communities, and Trump’s extolling the use of torture for ISIS war criminals like Salah Abdeslam.

Trump’s wall, a highly-touted blockade to keep out potentially dangerous refugees, was a topic of Clinton’s speech at Stanford. She stressed that building a wall will not work. Walls, she said, will not contain ISIS. “Walls will not protect us from this threat. Walls cannot contain ISIS. We need to defeat ISIS.”

Clinton said the U.S. must exemplify leadership in the worldwide fight against ISIS. An article by the Washington Times stated that in her Stanford address, Hillary said “Tuesday’s deadly attacks in Brussels only reinforce the need to implement a comprehensive strategy to rid the organization from the face of the earth.”

“People and nations have to secure their own communities. We can, and I argue, must, support them, but we can’t substitute for them. It would also be a serious mistake to begin carpet bombing populated areas into oblivion. Proposing that doesn’t make you sound tough. It makes you sound like you’re in over your head. Slogans aren’t a strategy. Loose cannons tend to misfire. What America needs is strong, steady leadership to wage and win this struggle.”

Clinton condemned islamophobic rhetoric.

“In our fight against radical jihadism, we have to do what actually works. What doesn’t work: offensive rhetoric that demonizes all Muslims.”

Hillary’s three-part plan to defeat ISIS, which was outlined again today on her Twitter account, consists of the following:

  1. Take out ISIS’s stronghold in Iraq and Syria.
  2. Dismantle the global terror network.
  3. Harden our defenses at home and prevent attacks.

Following her victory in the Arizona primary on Tuesday, Clinton talked about the Brussels attacks during a speech in Seattle.

“We can’t throw out everything we know about what works and what doesn’t and start torturing people.”

She alluded to the violence during some of Trump’s rallies.

“I want you to understand that, because sometimes when all we see is the ugliness of these protests, the mean-spiritedness, when we see people who are running for president of the United States who are literally inciting bigotry and violence, it’s easy to say, ‘You know, I’m not even going to pay attention to that.’ But what I want you to know is, we’ve got to reclaim the promise of America for all of our people. Every single one of them.”

As this Inquisitr article illustrates, both Clinton and Sanders have very different views from how Trump and Cruz propose to handle terrorism.

A Clinton campaign official outlined some of the content for today’s speech.

“She’ll say that to defeat this kind of transnational threat, we need to reinforce the alliances – in particular, NATO – that have been core pillars of American power for decades. At the same time, she will also identify steps our European partners can take to improve coordination and information-sharing.”

[Image via Joseph Sohm/Shutterstock]

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