Hillary Clinton's campaign has struggled with presenting the candidate's apparent hawkishness. Although she has called her Senate vote in favor of the Iraq War "a mistake," the former Secretary of State has made no apologies for her support of arming moderate Syrian rebels or eliminating the right of the Iranian people to nuclear energy. This was made abundantly clear in her interview with Jeffery Goldberg in The Atlantic last year. Now it appears the presidential candidate is ready to take the war against ISIS much farther than President Obama. On Thursday, Clinton called for a no-fly zone enforced by coalition forces, expanded air strikes, and increased deployment of special operations troops.
According to the New York Times, Clinton said, "Our goal is not to deter or contain ISIS, but to defeat and destroy ISIS." This statement served to distance Clinton from the long-ridiculed Obama claim that the terrorist group had been "contained."
Clinton continued, "It is time to begin a new phase and intensify and broaden our efforts to smash the would-be caliphate and deny ISIS control of territory in Iraq and Syria."
She aligned with the president on some issues however, agreeing that The United States should not have "100,000 troops in the Middle East."
Clinton echoed a popular sentiment that oil-rich Gulf States like Saudi Arabia need to join in the fight against ISIS. Further, she insisted that these countries end their funding of terrorist organizations. She said, "Once and for all, the Saudis, the Qataris and others need to stop their citizens from directly funding extremist organizations."
In addressing how parents should talk to their children about terrorism, Clinton said, "You have to answer their questions. But you also have to tell them not to let those threats in any way upset their minds or make them be afraid to go out."
