Telling an ABC News Debate audience at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire Dec. 19 that the war with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria is “finally where we need to be,” Republicans pounced all over her on Sunday morning talks shows. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush tweeted, “We are not ‘where we need to be’ in the fight against ISIS,” mirroring his tough new image the GOP’s biggest critic of Hillary, but, more importantly, real estate mogul and former reality TV star Donald Trump. Bush’s polls have plummeted from front-runner to below 5%, some 35% behind Trump, despite repeating his Dec. 15 CNN debate one-liner that Donald “can’t insult his way to the White House.” Bush’s two-prong strategy to revive his fading campaign is to attack Hillary and Trump. Hillary puts stock in the international national community’s lip-service about going after ISIS in Iraq and Syria, refusing to commit U.S. troops.
Insisting there’s a global commitment to destroying ISIS doesn’t match the realities on the ground in the Mideast. While ranting about ISIS’s million-dollar a day-plus profits from illicit oil sales, Hillary has no answer for accusations made by Russia that Turkey, a U.S. ally and part of NATO, currently buys cheap ISIS oil. Recent reports about Syria’s Bashar al-Assad buying discounted ISIS oil throws a monkey wrench into what Hillary sees as a new Syria consensus. “We have a strategy and commitment to go after ISIS. . . And we finally have U.N. Security Council Resolution bringing the world together to go after a political transition in Syria,” Hillary told the ABC News debate audience. Republican National Committee strategy hopes to paint Hillary’ campaign as a continuation of President Barack Obama, making a strong argument for changing parties in 2016 at the White House.
None of the top-tier GOP candidates are willing to commit ground troops to root out ISIS from strongholds in Iraq and Syria. Hillary talks about working with “moderate” Sunnis that neither have the resources nor the will to take on ISIS. Hillary’s closest Democratic rival, 74-year-old Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), insisted “Muslims” should lead the fight against ISIS, pretending there’s a coherent “Muslim” army ready to take on ISIS. Sanders pointed out Hillary’s rush to topple al-Assad, something against Syria’s most loyal allies, Russia and Iran. Hillary knows that Russian President Vladimir Putin doesn’t oppose regime change in Damscus as long as it’s backed by the Syrian people. That, realistically, pits Putin against the current Saudi-backed proxy war called a “civil war” by the White House, when, in fact, it’s a determined Sunni Wahhabi holy war against Syria’s Shiite government.
GOP candidates jumped all over Hillary’s words today but offered no coherent policy differences, including whether or not the U.S. should put combat in Iraq and Syria. “Oh my gosh. With dead bodies in Paris, dead bodies in San Bernardino and no plan for this administration to deal with it, we’re finally where we need to be,” New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. Christie, whose campaign is near the bottom of the GOP pack, can’t seem to gain traction, hoping to bamboozle New Hampshire voters, tending to like mavericks. Without anything new to add, Christie can only dump on Clinton, hoping he gets votes. Going after Trump in recent weeks hasn’t got Christie anywhere. Mainstream GOP politicians, especially Reince Priebus at the Republican National Committee, haven’t give up on the fantasy that Trump’s fails when voting begins.
Senate Majority Leader, 73-year-old Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), ripped Hillary’s plans a nothing more that an Obama rubber-stamp. “It’s pretty clear from what Hillary said last night that she thinks things are just fine,” said McConnell. “This illustrates that election of Hillary Clinton would be a third term for Barack Obama’s foreign policy.” McConnell said nothing about what his party would do differently, other than criticize the Obama policy. “I would have like to [have] the Saudis, Kuwaitis, Jordanians all on the ground fighting ISIS. But most of them still want to fight from the air and not from the ground,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) told Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union.” More isolationist than other GOP candidates, Paul also offers nothing knew, knowing that it’s doubtful any group, other than the Kurd’s Peshmerga fighters or some Wahhabi terror groups would commit ground troops.
Playing fast-and-loose with the facts last night, Hillary insisted that ISIS is now using Donald Trump for its recruitment videos. “He’s becoming ISIS’ best recruiter,” said Hillary. “The are going to people showing videos of Donald Trump insulting Islam and Muslims in order to recruit jihadists.” Hillary’s communication director Jen Palmieri insisted that the Website Intelligence Groups “said that [terrorists] are using Trump in social media as propaganda to help recruit supporters,” offering no proof of any ISIS video or social media piece. “It’s nonsense,” Trump told NBC’s Chuck Todd on “Meet The Press.” “There’s no such video,” Trump said, pointing out that Hillary’s making up things as she goes. Trump’s getting hit from all sides, finding no relief from either Democrats or the GOP. GOP officials haven’t yet jumped on the Trump bandwagon, still hoping he falls on his face.
