Sanders made it clear during the debate that he disagreed with Hillary over what he called “the incredible quagmire of Syria.”
“It’s hard to know who's fighting who and if you give arms to this guy, it may end up in ISIS' hand the next day,” Sanders said. “We all know that.”
Hilary was a bit more cryptic about how the US should handle Syria. She was also careful not to undermine the Commander in Chief.
When asked whether she thought Obama’s failure to not respond with military force after it was revealed Assad had used chemical weapons on civilians, particularly his own people, Clinton shifted the conversation over to Iraq.
“If there is any blame to be spread around, it starts with the prime minister of Iraq, who sectarianized his military, setting Shia against Sunni,” Hilary said. “It is amplified by Assad …”
Nonetheless, reports indicate terror groups in Syria may already have gotten their hands on chemical weapons.
Hilary pointed out she stood against Sanders’ proposal to involve the Iranian military in the fight against ISIS.
“… The immediate task is to bring all interests together who want to destroy ISIS, including Russia, including Iran, including our Muslim allies to make that the major priority,” Sanders said.
Russia was another focus.
Hilary was told she “famously handed Russia's foreign minister a reset button in 2009. Since then, Russia has annexed Crimea, fomented a war in Ukraine, provided weapons that downed an airliner and launched operations, as we just did discuss, to support Assad in Syria.”
The former Secretary defended her actions by saying it led to a new START treaty between the US and Russia to shrink their nuclear arsenals. Hilary, however, did point to “fraudulent elections” bringing Putin back to power and said, “We have to figure out how to deal with him.”
