Hillary Clinton to Lay Out Strategy Against Islamic State
Hillary Clinton, the Democratic front-runner for president, is laying out her strategy for defeating Islamic State and dismantling the growing terrorist infrastructure in a speech Thursday aimed at better defining her approach to what has become an acute foreign-policy challenge.
Her speech, at the Council on Foreign Relations less than a week after a deadly, devastating attack in Paris, will lay out “her strategy for countering ISIS and for the longer-term struggle to combat radical jihadism across the globe,” a Clinton aide said, previewing her remarks.
Ahead of the speech, the aide offered no detail on how she would go about this other than to name her “overarching objectives.” He said she aims to defeat ISIS in Syria, Iraq and across the region; to “disrupt and dismantle the growing terrorist infrastructure” that facilitates the flow of fighters, money, arms and propaganda; and harden defenses in the U.S. and allied countries against both external and homegrown threats.
A somewhat more revealing preview may have come on Tuesday from Mrs. Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, who told a meeting of the Wall Street Journal CEO Council that she would employ a multipronged strategy to defeat Islamic State.
Mr. Podesta said that would include accelerated use of air power against their targets and supporting and equipping fighters on the ground, particularly the Kurds and Arabs fighting them in both northern Iraq and Syria. And he said Mrs. Clinton would work to get regional partners to take on a more robust role.
“We’ve got to get our Arab and Muslim partners more in the game, particularly the Saudis and the Turks, to take the fight to them,” he said.
Mr. Podesta reiterated a point that Mrs. Clinton made in Saturday’s Democratic debate—that her goal would be to defeat Islamic State, a contrast with recent comments from President Barack Obama, who said in an interview ahead of the Paris attack that the group had been contained.
“These are barbaric, nihilistic jihadis,” Mr. Podesta said. “They have to be defeated. They can’t be contained.”
Observers will be watching the Clinton speech to see how closely she hues to Mr. Obama’s policy, and where she breaks, a particularly sensitive question given that she served as his secretary of state for four years. She’s already suggested a more muscular U.S. role in the conflict, including arming the moderate opposition in Syria when she was secretary of state, and more recently advocating for a U.S.-imposed no-fly zone.
The White House has rejected a no-fly zone as a resource-intensive investment that could put the U.S. on a slippery slope toward a wider war.
Mrs. Clinton may also articulate what role she sees Russia playing at a time when the Obama administration has suggested a coalition of sorts with Moscow if it changes its orientation in Syria toward defeating Islamic State, from propping up President Bashar al-Assad.
The Clinton speech comes a day after Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor, gave his own speech on Islamic State, where he called for a broad U.S. military buildup designed to defeat the terrorist group and “develop the capability to wage war with crushing force.” He called for 40,000 new Army troops, 4,000 more Marines and new submarines and aircraft.
