Clinton plan

Clinton offers her plan for defeating Islamic State

By Annie Karni

Hillary Clinton on Thursday morning will offer her most expansive foreign policy vision since last week’s terror attacks on Paris that killed more than 130, laying out her strategy for countering ISIL and “radical jihadism” across the globe.

At a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations in Manhattan, Clinton is expected to discuss how to defeat ISIL in Syria and Iraq, as well as how to fight a growing terrorist infrastructure. She will also address how to harden America’s defenses against threats at home and abroad, according to a campaign aide.

The balancing act for Clinton is how to position herself in relation to President Obama, who last week just hours before the coordinated attacks across the City of Light said the Islamic State in Iraq had been geographically “contained.” Clinton is seen as the most hawkish Democrat in the 2016 race, but also the only candidate who can be directly implicated in helping put together Obama’s ISIL containment strategy as secretary of state.

“We have to look at ISIS as the leading threat of an international terror network,” Clinton said at the second Democratic debate last Saturday. “It cannot be contained; it must be defeated.”

In a competing foreign policy address Wednesday, Republican candidate Jeb Bush called for more troops on the ground in the Middle East. "This is the war of our time," he said. "Radical Islamic terrorists have declared war on the Western world. Their aim is our total destruction. We can't withdraw from this threat, or negotiate with it. We have but one choice: to defeat it."

At the debate last weekend, Clinton was cautious about increased American involvement. "This cannot be an American fight, although American leadership is essential," she said. She also rejected the use of the term “radical Islam."

“I don’t think we’re at war with Islam,” she said. “I don’t think we’re at war with all Muslims. I think we’re at war with jihadists…. We are at war with violent extremism. We are at war with people who use their religion for purposes of power and oppression. And, yes, we are at war with those people. But I don’t want us to be painting with too broad a brush.”

The former secretary of state has for the most part steered clear of discussing foreign policy on the campaign trail. Her last detailed address of global issues was last September, when she offered up a policy defense of Obama’s Iran deal at a speech at the Brookings Institution.

The set up Thursday morning was similar to that address — an intimate, wood-paneled room with a podium and two leather-backed chairs set up for a question-and-answer session. The front row was reserved for local elected officials like Mayor Bill de Blasio, who only recently endorsed Clinton’s campaign, and former Mayor David Dinkins, as well as longtime allies like Vernon Jordan and former deputy Secretary of State Tom Nides.