Hillary published this in Medium last night.
These
past few days, all of us have tried to make sense of yet another
senseless terrorist attack. I know that Americans are anxious and
fearful, and we have reason to be. The threat is real. The need for
action is urgent.
Our
intelligence and law enforcement agencies will continue learning about
what led to the massacre in San Bernardino just as French and Belgian
authorities are doing so in Paris and Brussels. But this much we do
know: The threat from radical jihadism has metastasized and become more
complex and challenging. We’re seeing the results of radicalization not
just in far-off lands but right here at home fueled by the internet.
It’s the nexus of terrorism and technology, and we have a lot of work to
do to end it.
As
hard as this is, Americans now have to move from fear to resolve.
America has beaten bigger threats before, and we will defeat this one as
well.
Resolve
means depriving jihadists of virtual territory just as we work to
deprive them of actual territory. They are using websites, social media,
chat rooms, and other platforms to celebrate beheadings, recruit future
terrorists, and call for attacks. We should work with host companies to
shut them down.
Resolve
means supporting also our first responders, like the officer in San
Bernardino who said he would take a bullet for the civilians he was
rescuing. We owe them our support and gratitude and whatever help they
need. Local law enforcement should get the support, training, and
coordination they need in their communities from counterterrorism
experts in Washington. It also means taking a close look at safeguards
in visa programs and working more effectively with our European allies
on intelligence and information sharing. And yes, Congress must act to
ensure that no one who is a suspected terrorist can buy guns anywhere in
America.
If you’re too dangerous to fly in America, you are too dangerous to buy a gun in America.
Resolve
means going after the threat at its source in Iraq and Syria and
beyond. Our goal must not be to deter or contain ISIS; our goal must be
to defeat ISIS. And I have put forth a three-prong plan to do that.
First,
deny ISIS territory in Iraq and Syria by leading an intensified air
campaign and working with local and regional forces on the ground.
Second, dismantle the global infrastructure of terror, the networks that
supply radical jihadists with money, weapons, and fighters, and stop
them from recruiting and inspiring. And third, toughen our defenses at
home and those of our partners against external and homegrown threats.
An
effective fight on the ground against ISIS is essential, but that does
not mean deploying tens of thousands of American combat troops.
It
does mean stepping up efforts to get more Arabs and Kurdish fighters
into the fight against ISIS on both sides of the Iraq-Syria border,
supporting the Iraqi Security Forces while pressuring Baghdad to pursue a
more inclusive and effective approach, and immediately deploying the
Special Operations Forces that President Obama has already authorized,
with more to follow as more Syrians get into the fight. We also have to
demand that our Arab and Turkish partners carry their share of the
burden with military, financial, and diplomatic contributions. We will
do our part, but it’s their fight too, and they need to act like it is.
Dealing
with the conflict in Syria with respect to Assad is central to this
whole effort. We need to continue Secretary Kerry’s efforts to move
toward a diplomatic solution to the civil war in Syria that paves the
way for new leadership and enables Syrians from every community to take
on ISIS. Investing the Russians in this outcome and getting them to step
up and do their part will be difficult but essential. And we have to
pursue a transition away from Assad and an intensified fight against
ISIS simultaneously. We’re not going to get Syrian opposition forces to
fight ISIS in earnest without the credible prospect of a transition, and
that’s going to take more pressure and leverage. It’s one of the
reasons why I have proposed creating a no-fly zone as well as safe
havens and more robust support for opposition forces.
And finally, it’s crucial that we embed our mission to defeat ISIS within a broader struggle against radical jihadism.
Extremist
groups like ISIS feed off instability and conflict, and there is no
shortage of that in the Middle East today. Decades of repression,
poverty, corruption, a lack of pluralism and tolerance turn the region
into a powder keg. That’s why we have to keep working with our friends
and partners to support economic and political modernization; train
effective and accountable local intelligence, law enforcement, and
counterterrorism services. And once and for all, the Saudis, the
Qataris, the Kuwaitis, and others must stop their citizens from funding
extremist organizations and stop supporting radical schools and mosques
around the world that have set too many young people on a path toward
extremism.
So across the
board, we must act with courage and clarity. And it’s important to
remind ourselves that Islam itself is not our adversary. This is not and
we should not let it become a clash of civilizations. It is a clash
between hate and hope — and the vast majority of Muslims are on our side
of the battle unless we drive them away. We can’t buy into the very
narrative that radical jihadists use to recruit new followers or
alienate partners we want and need at home and abroad with reckless
rhetoric.
Declaring
war on Islam or demonizing the Muslim American community is not only
counter to our values; it plays right into the hands of terrorists.
Muslim
Americans are our neighbors, our co-workers, loved ones, friends. Many
are working every day all over our country to prevent radicalization. We
should be supporting them, not scapegoating them. But, at the same
time, none of us can close our eyes to the fact that we do face enemies
who use Islam to justify slaughtering innocent people. We have to stop
them and we will. Radical jihadists, like so many adversaries in our
history, underestimate the strength of our national character. Americans
will not cower or cave, and we will not turn on each other or turn on
our principles. We will defeat those who threaten us. We will keep our
country safe and strong, free and tolerant.
Wife, mom, grandma, women+kids advocate, FLOTUS, Senator, SecState, hair icon, pantsuit aficionado, 2016 presidential candidate.
