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 Speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, the
former secretary of state offered her most expansive view to date on
how to counter a growing militancy that launched attacks in Paris
last Friday in which 129 people died.
"Our goal is not to deter or contain ISIS, but to defeat and destroy
ISIS," she said, using a common acronym for the group, in what
amounted to an implicit criticism of Obama, who said days before the
Paris attacks that it had been contained.
Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination
for the November 2016 election, called for a "new phase" in the
fight against Islamic State and outlined an approach that is more
hawkish than Obama's.
Clinton said the United States should increase air strikes and send
more special forces to spot targets and get local forces
combat-ready, able to reclaim territory lost to militants who have
proclaimed a caliphate in parts of Syria and Iraq.
Turning to options Obama has not adopted, she would impose no-fly
zones over Syria and safe zones for refugees.
 However, she opposed deploying large numbers of U.S. troops, saying
"local people and nations have to secure their own communities."
"Like President Obama, I do not believe that we should again have
100,000 American troops in combat in the Middle East, that is just
not the smart move to make here," she said.
Instead, she said, "We should be sending more special operators, we
should be empowering our trainers in Iraq, we should be ... leading
an air coalition, using both fighter planes and drones."
Bernie Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont who is Clinton’s prime
challenger, was unequivocal in his opposition to using more U.S.
forces in Iraq.
“I will never hesitate to defend this nation, but I will never send
our sons and daughters to war under false pretense or pretenses or
into dubious battles with no end in sight,” he said in a speech at
Georgetown University.
Obama has come under heavy criticism in the wake of the Paris
attacks for his reliance on air strikes with no capability on the
ground to control whatever territory might be cleared of enemy
fighters through the use of air power.
The United States currently has 3,400 troops in Iraq and is sending
more than 50 more who are special operations forces.
Clinton's speech came a day after Republican presidential candidate
Jeb Bush said more U.S. ground forces will be needed in Iraq in the
wake of the Paris attacks.
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Presaging how Republicans plan to take on Clinton, an aide to
presidential candidate and Ohio Governor John Kasich said it is hard
to take Clinton seriously on the issue because conditions in Iraq
and Syria worsened when she was Obama's first-term secretary of
state.
"You have to ask yourself what was her role when this was all coming
together during the first administration. It’s a little difficult to
distance yourself from something that you were basically present at
the creation for," said Charles Mallory, national security director
for Kasich's campaign.
In the battle to counter Islamic State's propaganda capabilities,
Clinton said the United States will need help from American private
industry.
Silicon Valley companies, she said, must not view government as its
adversary when it comes to formulating counter-terrorism policies,
adding that social media companies can help stop terrorism by
"swiftly shutting down affiliated accounts."
"Now is the time to solve this problem, not after the next attack,"
Clinton said.
Clinton, who sometimes struggles to relate on the campaign trail,
seemed in her element in her hour-long appearance at the Council on
Foreign Relations.
While parting ways with Obama to some degree, she hewed closely to
his decision to resettle as many as 10,000 Syrian refugees as part
of the traditional U.S. welcoming role.
Many Republican candidates and more than two dozen state governors
have called for a pause in the resettlement program out of fears
militants might sneak into the country.
"We cannot allow terrorists to intimidate us into abandoning our
values and our humanitarian obligations," she said.
(Additional reporting by Amanda Becker, Alana Wise and Caren Bohan
in Washington; Writing by Steve Holland; Editing by James Dalgleish)
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