Letting Syria become a free zone for ISIS and sending American ground troops is “off the table,” Hillary Clinton said in a speech criticizing Donald Trump’s foreign policy plans.

“I’d like to know if she’s opposed to the 5,000 troops that are officially, openly in Iraq,” Phyllis Bennis told Democracy Now! or “the hundreds that are officially, openly in Syria.”

The problem with Clinton, Bennis said, is that although her critique of Trump is accurate, she is unclear about her own positions.

Hillary Clinton has said she supports a no-fly zone in Syria. “The first act of a no-fly zone is an act of war to take out the anti-aircraft system” Bennis said. Syria has a very developed, Russian-supplied anti-aircraft system, Bennis explained.

“So is Hillary Clinton saying it’s okay to go to war with Russia? Would she support more ground troops? Would she support a no-fly zone that would immediately be extended to a regime change action as it was in Libya?”  Bennis asked.

No one is pressing her on those questions, she said.

Phyllis Bennis directs the New Internationalism project at the Institute for Policy Studies.

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