Clinton Blames Militants Rise in Iraq, Syria on Obama Policies

Local Editor

Former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton blamed the rise of militants in Iraq and Syria on failures of U.S. policy under US President Barack Obama, in an interview published on Sunday.

Clinton specifically faulted the U.S. decision to stay on the sidelines of the insurgency against the Syrian government as opening the way for the most extreme rebel faction, the so-called "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" [ISIL].

Clinton told the Atlantic that, "The failure to help build up a credible fighting force of the people who were the originators of the protests...the failure to do that left a big vacuum, which the "jihadists" have now filled." 

Clinton suggested in the interview that Obama lacked a strategy for dealing with the "jihadist" threat.

She said, "Great nations need organizing principles, and ‘Don't do stupid stuff' is not an organizing principle," she said referring to an Obama slogan.

Clinton was an unsuccessful advocate of arming the Syrian rebels when she was secretary of state during Obama's first term.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team