Clinton, Sanders support Syria deployment
Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are both voicing support for President Obama’s decision to send 250 troops to Syria, a deepening of U.S. involvement in the war against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
Both candidates sought to highlight their ties to Obama.
{mosads}”These Special Forces will continue to provide critical support to local forces on the ground who ultimately must be the ones to win this fight,” Clinton’s campaign said in a statement, according to Reuters.
Clinton has advocated a more hawkish foreign policy stance than Sanders. She has previously called for more air strikes and special operations forces to fight ISIS, as well as a no-fly zone in Syria.
But Sanders, who has repeatedly criticized Clinton for supporting the Iraq War and being too quick to support regime change in Libya, also said he supported the deployment.
“I think what the president is talking about is having American troops training Muslim troops, helping to supply the military equipment they need, and I do support that effort,” he said Monday during an MSNBC town hall.
The deployment of 250 troops in Syria quintuples the U.S. presence in the country. It comes on the heels of a decision to send 217 more troops to Iraq.
The decision has drawn criticism from some progressives, including Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), the lone Afghanistan War dissenter in Congress.
There are now 4,087 troops authorized in Iraq and 250 authorized in Syria, in addition to several hundred additional U.S. troops in Iraq who are not officially deployed full-time to Iraq and are not included in the official count.
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