20 November 2015 - US presidential candidates detail their plans against ISIS

Bernie Sanders details ISIS strategy, defines "Democratic socialism"
(CBC News)

In a speech meant to focus largely on his political philosophy as a "Democratic Socialist," presidential candidate Bernie Sanders dove outlined a foreign policy plan calling for a broad coalition to fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
"A new and strong coalition of Western powers, Muslim nations, and countries like Russia must come together in a strongly coordinated way to combat ISIS, to seal the borders that fighters are currently flowing across, to share counter-terrorism intelligence, to turn off the spigot of terrorist financing, and to end support for exporting radical ideologies," the Vermont senator said Thursday during an address at Georgetown University.
Sanders pointed specifically to counties like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates -- "countries of enormous wealth and resources" -- to join the coalition.

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Donald Trump and America’s Muslims
John Cassidy (The New Yorker)
As you have doubtless noticed, the terrorist attacks in Paris have produced a rhetorical race to the bottom among the Republican candidates for President. Jeb Bush took an early lead in this descent by issuing a proposal that appeared to have been taken from the playbook of his elder brother George. Appearing on television over the weekend, Bush said that the United States should put together a multinational coalition to invade Syria, mash ISIS to smithereens, and knock off the Assad regime, and only then figure out how to establish peace and withdraw.
On Monday, Chris Christie, another struggling candidate, argued that the first priority was securing the homefront, which meant that the United States couldn’t risk allowing in any more Syrian refugees—not even young children who had lost their parents. “I don’t think orphans under five are being, you know, should be admitted into the United States at this point,” the New Jersey Governor told Hugh Hewitt, the conservative talk-show host.
For heartlessness, illiberalism, and irresponsibility, Christie’s statement seemed hard to beat. But Donald Trump, the Republican frontrunner, isn’t one to concede defeat easily. Speaking to Sean Hannity, of Fox News, on Tuesday, Trump said that, in order to forestall possible attacks on American soil, the federal government might have to close down mosques. “Nobody wants to say this, and nobody wants to shut down religious institutions,” Trump said. But, he continued, “there’s absolutely no choice. Some really bad things are happening, and they are happening fast.”
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Jeb Bush’s Call for War
John Cassidy (The New Yorker)
On Sunday’s edition of “Meet the Press,” Jeb Bush said that it was time for the United States to go to war with ISIS, and to put together an international coalition to rout the jihadis from their strongholds in Syria and Iraq. “We should declare war and harness all of the power that the United States can bring to bear, both diplomatic and military of course, to be able to take out ISIS,” Bush, who is trailing badly in the G.O.P. Presidential polls, said. “We have the capabilities of doing this, we just haven’t shown the will.”
Pressed by Chuck Todd, the show’s moderator, on what else Bush wanted President Obama to do, the former Florida governor talked about creating no-fly and safe zones in Syria, “directly” arming Kurdish peshmerga forces, and embedding U.S. personnel in the Iraqi military. When Todd asked Bush what he would tell the American people to justify such a strategy, he said, “We have to be in this fight. There is no other option.” Later, Todd inquired whether such a plan would involve “boots on the ground.” “Absolutely,” Bush replied. “And it ought to be designed by our military without their hands tied.”
There is much that could be said about Bush’s proposal, which he said would include efforts to depose Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and, if necessary, to confront his military forces, too. (“We need to build a coalition that can fight both Assad and ISIS and give people safe haven,” he said.) I was struck, in particular, by how he foresaw that such a military campaign would be sequenced. “Well, you take it to them in Syria and Iraq,” Bush explained. “You destroy ISIS. And then you build a coalition to replace this radical Islamic terrorist threat to our country and to Europe and to the region with something that is more peace loving.”
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What the 2016 Presidential Candidates Say the US Should Do About ISIS
Veronica Stracqualursi, Alana Abramson and Lissette Rodriguez (ABC News)
It became the leading topic of discussion during Saturday’s Democratic presidential debate: What should the United States do in the fight against ISIS following the attack on Paris?
In the days since the massacre overseas, the presidential hopefuls have offered an array of opinions, with several of the Republicans contenders coming out in favor of doing more; even if that means American "boots on the ground."
One of the Paris attackers reportedly crossed into Europe alongside Syrian refugees, providing fuel to the argument, made by some GOP candidates, that ISIS could infiltrate the 10,000 Syrian refugees President Obama vowed to accept over the next year.
Today, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush told Fox News that the United States should “absolutely” be profiling in order to prevent Islamic terrorists from crossing our borders and Republican Sen. Ted Cruz Sunday said the United States should accept Christian refugees but not Muslims.
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