Des Moines: White House hopeful Hillary Clinton called for global unity to crush the self-styled Islamic State (IS) group, asthe carnage in Paris took centre stage at Saturday’s Democratic presidential debate.
The three candidates began their debate with a moment of silence for the victims in France, bringing Friday’s horrific attacks an ocean away to the forefront of the 2016 race as they dominated the first half hour of the political showdown.
Clinton, liberal United States (US) Senator Bernie Sanders and former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley united in calling for the destruction of the terrorists accused of massacring at least 129 people in the French capital.
“We are not at war with Islam,” said the former secretary of state, choosing her words with care as she warned ordinary Muslims should not be viewed as a threat. “We are at war with violent extremism.”
“Our prayers are with the people of France tonight, but that is not enough,” she said, calling for global resolve to defeat IS, “a barbaric, ruthless, violent jihadist terrorist group”.
IS claimed responsibility for the coordinated attacks on a Paris concert hall, restaurants and bars, and outside France’s national stadium ─ calling it retribution for French air strikes in Syria.
“It cannot be contained, it must be defeated,” Clinton said of the group which has overrun swathes of Syria and Iraq.
With all the talk of battling the wave of terrorism, the Democrats on stage refused to use the term “radical Islam”, which moderators used Saturday ─ and Republicans in the presidential race have used throughout the campaign ─ to describe the scourge.
“Let’s not fall into the trap of thinking our Muslim-American neighbours… are the enemy,” O’Malley said.
Former Florida governor and Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush spoke up from afar during the debate, tweeting: “Yes, we are at war with radical Islamic terrorism.”
While Democrats displayed equal determination to eradicate terrorism, fissures appeared between the candidates on whether the US should lead the struggle.
Clinton said American leadership was critical in the effort, with all the diplomatic tools at Washington’s disposal beyond just military might, “but this cannot be an American fight”.
Also read: Paris attacks: what we know so far
America’s fight
That drew a sharp disagreement from O’Malley.
“This actually is America’s fight,” he insisted. “America is best when we are actually standing up to evil in this world.”
Relatively hawkish Clinton, self-described democratic socialist Sanders and low-polling O’Malley took the stage in Des Moines, Iowa for their second Democratic showdown in the 2016 primary cycle.
With 79 days before the first state-wide vote in Iowa, frontrunner Clinton has reinforced her status as the woman to beat in the race.
Her poll numbers have risen steadily since mid September, to more than 54 per cent today according to a RealClearPolitics average. Sanders is at 33pc, while O’Malley is languishing at 3pc.
With Sanders eager to take the fight to Clinton on the economy ─ he is calling for an economic revolution, while knocking Clinton for her ties to Wall Street ─ the refocus on terrorism shifted the early portion of the debate in favour of the former top diplomat, fluent in foreign policy.
But Sanders stood his ground, arguing that the Iraq war, which then-senator Clinton voted to authorise in 2002, laid the foundation for the surging terrorist threat that sowed carnage on Friday.
“I would argue that the disastrous invasion of Iraq, something that I strongly opposed, has unravelled the region completely and led to the rise of Al Qaeda and to IS,” Sanders said.
The Iraq war, he repeated, “was one of the worst foreign policy blunders in the modern history of the United States.”
On the economic front, the candidates sparred ─ gently, compared with their Republican rivals who have already clashed in four on-stage debates ─ over how to increase wages and expand the work force.
Clinton also said Saturday she had a “very aggressive plan” to rein in Wall Street’s big banks.
Sanders shot back with a blunt message ─ “Not good enough” ─ and essentially challenged Clinton to disavow much of her connections to Wall Street millionaires who back her campaign.
“They expect to get something, everybody knows that,” Sanders said, implying that establishment candidates like Clinton would be in debt to Wall Street supporters.
“The business model of Wall Street is fraud,” Sanders said. “I will break up these banks” if elected.
