Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have essentially the same counterterrorism plans, and both are flawed.
Looking largely “over there.” Both nominees are focused on transnational terrorism, especially the threat from the Islamic State group. Clinton proposes ongoing air strikes, working with local forces in Iraq and Syria, and collaborating with allies to dismantle “the global network of terror that supplies money, arms, propaganda, and fighters.”
Trump wants to “bomb the shit out of them,” and as he said in his terrorism speech, “aggressively pursue joint and coalition military operations to crush and destroy [the Islamic State group], international cooperation to cut off their funding, expanded intelligence sharing and cyberwarfare to disrupt and disable their propaganda and recruiting.”
Even their plans for the Islamic State group are nearly identical. When it comes to counterterrorism, the Democratic and Republican nominees are presenting the same ideas, couched in language tailored to different parts of the electorate. And therein lies a much more troubling fact – it’s not just what they’re saying; it’s what they’re not saying.
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