CLINTON BACKS ALLIANCES IN FIGHT AGAINST TERRORISM
GOP rivals’ plans are ‘wrong,’ ‘dangerous’
Hillary Clinton broadened her critique of Republicans Donald Trump and Ted Cruz and their responses to the terrorist attacks in Brussels, calling them “wrong ” and “dangerous” approaches that would alienate U.S. allies and proliferate the terrorist threat.
In a foreign policy address Wednesday at Stanford University, Clinton proposed intensified airstrikes, more support for Arab and Kurdish ground fighters and greater efforts to apprehend those who enable Islamic State jihadists.
The former secretary of State, in rebuking Cruz, said it would be a “serious mistake to begin carpet-bombing civilian areas into oblivion” in Syria and Iraq and “treating American Muslims like criminals.” The Texas senator proposed stepped-up “patrols” of Muslim areas, and Trump said he agreed.
Clinton said the United States must reinforce critical alliances, particularly with NATO.
The day before terrorist strikes killed more than 30 people in the heart of the European Union, Trump said the United States should rethink its involvement in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Clinton called NATO “one of the best investments America has ever made” and cited European solidarity with the USA after the Sept. 11 terror attacks. “Now it’s our turn to stand with Europe,” she said. “If Mr. Trump gets his way, it’ll be like Christmas in the Kremlin.”
Trump said the United States was “taking care” of Ukraine and “paying disproportionately” to major European countries. He clarified later that the United States should decrease its spending, not its role.
The Brussels attacks will, at least temporarily, redirect the 2016 presidential conversation to foreign policy. Clinton seeks to draw a contrast with Republicans as both men garner support within their party for proposals to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexican border and for increased scrutiny of American Muslims.
Clinton said attacks in Europe show young Muslims are being radicalized in Western countries. “How high does the wall have to be to keep the Internet out?” she said. Trump has called for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the USA.
The Democratic presidential front-runner said Americans “have every reason” to be scared in the aftermath of an attack late last year in San Bernardino, Calif., but it’s unrealistic to shut down U.S. borders. American Muslims are a “crucial line of defense” in providing intelligence information about terrorist threats and in identifying young men and women at risk of radicalization, she said.
Treating them “like criminals” and racially profiling them is “wrong, it’s counterproductive, it’s dangerous,” she said.
The Brussels attacks will, at least temporarily, redirect the 2016 presidential conversation to foreign policy.