{"id":275256,"date":"2016-10-25T07:22:34","date_gmt":"2016-10-25T06:22:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/clintons-slog-deeper-into-the-big-muddy\/"},"modified":"2016-10-25T17:51:26","modified_gmt":"2016-10-25T16:51:26","slug":"clintons-slog-deeper-into-the-big-muddy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/clintons-slog-deeper-into-the-big-muddy\/","title":{"rendered":"Clinton\u2019s Slog Deeper into the Big Muddy"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>By Daniel Lazare<\/p>\n<p>Attentive viewers may have noticed something curious about last week\u2019s presidential debate. Asked if she would send troops to help stabilize Iraq once ISIS has been expelled from of the northern city of Mosul, Hillary Clinton replied that U.S. intervention\u00a0would\u00a0only make matters worse by providing Islamic State with a rallying point.<\/p>\n<p>But then she said: \u201cThe goal here is to take back Mosul. It\u2019s going to be a hard fight.\u00a0I\u2019ve got no illusions about that. And then [we should] continue to press into Syria to begin to take back and move on Raqqa, which is the ISIS headquarters. I am hopeful that the hard work that American military advisers have done will pay off and that we will see a really successful military operation.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_21351\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"width: 310px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/hrc-debate-abortion-answer-feed-cover-1400x600.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-21351\" src=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/lazy-load\/images\/1x1.trans.gif\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" srcset=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/hrc-debate-abortion-answer-feed-cover-1400x600-300x129.jpg 300w, https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/hrc-debate-abortion-answer-feed-cover-1400x600-768x329.jpg 768w, https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/hrc-debate-abortion-answer-feed-cover-1400x600-1028x441.jpg 1028w, https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/hrc-debate-abortion-answer-feed-cover-1400x600-160x69.jpg 160w, https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/hrc-debate-abortion-answer-feed-cover-1400x600.jpg 1400w\" alt=\"Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton at the third debate with Republican nominee Donald Trump. (Photo credit: hillaryclinton.com)\" width=\"300\" height=\"129\" data-lazy-src=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/hrc-debate-abortion-answer-feed-cover-1400x600-300x129.jpg\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-21351\" src=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/hrc-debate-abortion-answer-feed-cover-1400x600-300x129.jpg\" alt=\"Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton at the third debate with Republican nominee Donald Trump. (Photo credit: hillaryclinton.com)\" width=\"300\" height=\"129\" srcset=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/hrc-debate-abortion-answer-feed-cover-1400x600-300x129.jpg 300w, https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/hrc-debate-abortion-answer-feed-cover-1400x600-768x329.jpg 768w, https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/hrc-debate-abortion-answer-feed-cover-1400x600-1028x441.jpg 1028w, https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/hrc-debate-abortion-answer-feed-cover-1400x600-160x69.jpg 160w, https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/hrc-debate-abortion-answer-feed-cover-1400x600.jpg 1400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton at the third debate with Republican nominee Donald Trump. (Photo credit: hillaryclinton.com)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em>Move on Raqqah?\u00a0<\/em>What did that mean \u2013 that Clinton wants to follow up victory in Mosul with a push into Syria?\u00a0That she envisions a coordinated military thrust into Syria from Iraq? The answer is not quite, although the results could hardly be more dangerous than if she did.<\/p>\n<p>While the press focuses on the latest Donald Trump groping scandal, few reporters have noticed the explosion of violence from Mosul all the way to Afrin, a Syrian Kurdish stronghold some 380 miles to the west.\u00a0What Clinton sees as a simple two-pronged assault \u2013 first the U.S. and its allies wrest back Mosul, then they take Raqqah, and then they mop up whatever remains of ISIS in between \u2013 is already turning into something far messier, i.e., a multi-sided power struggle among Kurds, Turks, Shi\u2018ites, and Sunni Salafists.\u00a0All are terrified that they will be shut out of the new post-ISIS order, and all are scrambling to gain an edge on their rivals.<\/p>\n<p>Ironically, the winner could well turn out to be Islamic State, as ISIS is also known.\u00a0The group is hyper-alert when it&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/2016\/10\/24\/clintons-slog-deeper-into-the-big-muddy\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Daniel Lazare Attentive viewers may have noticed something curious about last week\u2019s presidential debate. Asked if she would send troops to help stabilize Iraq once ISIS has been expelled from of the northern city of Mosul, Hillary Clinton replied that U.S. intervention\u00a0would\u00a0only make matters worse by providing Islamic State with a rallying point. But [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[956,519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-275256","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-1st-story","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275256\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}