Pulling rank on 74-year-old Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in a Feb. 4 MSNBC debate moderated by Chuck Todd and Rachel Madow in Durham, N.H., 68-year-old former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton accused Bernie of “smearing” her by “insinuation” over her strong ties to Wall Street. Only the day before in a CNN town hall hosted by Anderson Cooper, Hillary admitted to accepting $675,000 in speaking fees from Goldman Sachs for three short speeches. When Cooper asked her why she took so much money, Hillary responded, “That’s what they offered.” Hillary rejects the label of an “establishment” candidate, despite receiving upwards of $15 million in campaign contributions from Wall Street. When Bernie reminded Hillary of her vote for the Oct. 16, 2002 Iraq War Resolution, she went on the defense highlighting all of Vermont senator’s foreign policy flaws.
Hillary knows that much of the chaos in the Middle East directly stems from former President George W. Bush’s March 20, 2003 Iraq War, toppling Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein April 10, 2003 without any plan to rule Iraq. While Hillary concedes she made a mistake, she insists she had no idea Bush would actually start firing Cruise missiles—something that makes no sense. “Back in 2002, we both looked at the same evidence about the wisdom about this war in Iraq and one of us voted the right way and one of us didn’t,” said Sanders, putting Hillary on the defensive. “A vote in 2002 is not a plan to defeat ISIS,” said Hillary, insisting it was old news. While claiming experience, Sanders pointed out that judgment counts. “Judgment” is more important to Sanders. “One of us voted the right way, and one of us didn’t,” said Sanders, prompting Hillary to question Bernie’s readiness for the White House.
Bernie didn’t have the foreign policy background to point to more recent foreign policy blunders by Hillary as secretary of state. She backed toppling the late Libyan dictator Col. Muammar Gaddafi Aug. 24, 2011, turning Libya, like Iraq, into a terrorism hotbed. Since toppling Gaddafi, the power vacuum opened up the floodgates of terrorism, allowing al-Qaeda and ISIS affiliates to seize territory. Whether admitted to or not, Hillary’s Libya policy led to the chaos and Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, killing 52-year-old Chris Stevens and three other Americans. House Select Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) has hammered Hillary on not providing adequate security in Benghazi or telling the truth when the attack first occurred. No one has raised the link between toppling Gaddafi and the Sept. 11, 2012 al-Qaida-linked terror attack.
Hillary touts her superior experience in foreign policy but shows little insight into the lessons of Iraq. Had she remembered what happened in Iraq, Hillary might have thought twice about toppling Gaddifi. Neither Madow nor Todd pressed either candidate on the disaster in Syria. For four years as secretary of state, Hillary backed the Saudi proxy war, backing Wahhabi Sunni opposition groups, including al-Qaeda’s al-Nusra Front and ISIS, trying to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Hillary, together with her Saudi friends, misled the public about Syria’s “civil war,” when she knew it was really a Saudi proxy war to topple al-Assad. Backing the Saudi proxy war has pitted the U.S. against Iran and Russia, prompting Defense Secretary Ash Carter Nov. 7, 2015 to accuse Russia of “endangering the world order.” Clinton called Iran at last night’s MSNBC debate the “world’s chief sponsor of terrorism.”
Hillary rips Bernie for suggesting the U.S. should develop better relations with Iran. She insisted that “Iran is the world’s chief sponsor of terrorism,” damaging the delicate relations improved between Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Java Zarif. Not only are Hillary’s comments false about Iran, they match the exact words of former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. “The Iranian regime is today the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism,” Rumsfeld told a security conference Feb. 3 in Munich. Hillary’s parallel with Rumsfeld proves she’s neither “progressive” nor “moderate” in foreign policy but closely aligned with the Neocons, like Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) and others that backed the Iraq War from the Bush administration like former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz.
Hillary’s stated views on “regime change” in Damascus run counter to the lessons of Iraq—and now Libya—that toppling Mideast dictators create power vacuums that lead to more chaos and terrorism. Pressed about Iraq and Syria, Hillary repeats the Saudi talking points that Syria’s “civil war” must end with ridding Damascus of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. With 250,000 killed and 2 million more displaced from Syria, Hillary isn’t up to speed with the commitment made by Kerry in Moscow Dec. 15, 2005 to hold off on Damacus regime change. While Iran has its problems in the Middle East and elsewhere, it’s not, as Hillary and Rumsfeld insist, the worlds’s chief sponsor of terrorism. Clearly, that title goes to Saudi Arabia for funding the Wahhabi proxy war in Syria trying to topple Syria’s Shiite government. Instead of blaming Iran, Hillary needs to get her foreign policy facts straight.
