Second 2016 Presidential Debate: on War & Peace
Jill Stein:
End policy of regime-change and military intervention
Q: What about the Mideast?STEIN: U.S. foreign policy based on regime-change and military intervention has been an utter disaster. It is exhausting our budget; it takes up 54 percent of our discretionary budget for a defense department, which is truly
an offense department, and it takes almost half of your income taxes. And what do we have to show for it?
Q: How are you going to pull the troops back in a way that, for instance, won't allow Iraq to collapse? Obama promised to pull the troops back,
tried to do it, got sucked in again.
STEIN: Well, right. Shouldn't have been in there in the first place. We are bombing seven countries right now. Yesterday we fired missiles at Yemen. I mean, there is no end to U.S. incursions. We have this terrific
power of militarism, and we're doing it all over the place. So here's the solution: We need a weapons embargo in the Middle East, and we need to freeze the bank accounts of those countries who insist on funding terrorist extremism.
Source: Slate.com interview after Second 2016 Presidential Debate
Oct 19, 2016
Donald Trump:
Unbelievable stupidity in our Mideast policy
The biggest problem I have with the stupidity of our foreign policy. They think a lot of the ISIS leaders are in Mosul. So we have announcements coming out of Washington and out of Iraq, we will be attacking Mosul in three or four weeks. All of these
bad leaders from ISIS are leaving Mosul. Why can't they do it quietly? Why can't they make it a sneak attack, and after the attack, inform the American public that we've knocked out the leaders, we've had a tremendous success? How stupid is our country?
Source: Second 2016 Presidential Debate at Washington University
Oct 9, 2016
Hillary Clinton:
Arm and support the Kurds against Assad
I hope by the time I am president that we will have pushed ISIS out of Iraq. I do think that there is a good chance that we can take Mosul. Trump says he knows more about ISIS than the generals. No, he doesn't. There are a lot of very important planning
going on, and some of it is to signal to the Sunnis in the area, as well as Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, that we all need to be in this. And that takes a lot of planning and preparation. I would go after Baghdadi. I would specifically target Baghdadi,
because I think our targeting of Al Qaida leaders--and I was involved in a lot of those operations, highly classified ones--made a difference. So I think that could help. I would also consider arming the Kurds. The Kurds have been our best partners in
Syria, as well as Iraq. I know there's a lot of concern about that in some circles, but I think they should have the equipment they need so that Kurdish & Arab fighters on the ground are the principal way that we take Raqqa after pushing ISIS out of Iraq
Source: Second 2016 Presidential Debate at Washington University
Oct 9, 2016
Jill Stein:
Stop bombing Muslims abroad and stop bashing them at home
Donald Trump: Whether we like it or not, there is a problem and we have to be sure that Muslims report it when they see hatred.Hillary Clinton: I intend to defeat ISIS to do so in a coalition with majority Muslim nations.
Jill Stein: If we want peace at home we need peace abroad. It's despicable for Trump to bash Muslims and Hillary to bomb them overseas.
Source: Stein Twitter posts on Second 2016 Presidential Debate
Oct 9, 2016
Mike Pence:
FactCheck: Pence says pressure Assad; Trump focuses on ISIS
Q: What would you do about Syria and the humanitarian crisis in Aleppo? And I want to remind you what your running mate said. He said provocations by Russia need to be met with American strength and that if Russia continues to be involved in air strikes
along with the Syrian government forces of Assad, the US should be prepared to use military force to strike the military targets of the Assad regime.TRUMP: He and I haven't spoken, and I disagree.
Q: You disagree with your running mate?
TRUMP:
I think you have to knock out ISIS. Right now, Syria is fighting ISIS We have people that want to fight both at the same time.
[OnTheIssues note: Russia & the Assad regime are bombing both ISIS & the Syrian rebels; the US is bombing ISIS but supports
the Syrian rebels].
TRUMP: But Syria is no longer Syria. Syria is Russia and it's Iran, who [Hillary] made strong and Kerry and Obama made into a very powerful nation. I believe we have to worry about ISIS before we can get too much more involved.
Source: OnTheissues FactCheck on Second 2016 Presidential Debate
Oct 9, 2016
Page last updated: Dec 09, 2018