Clinton to ‘Reset’ Syria War, Focus on Ousting Assad

Aide Vows Clinton Would Escalate Fight Against Both ISIS, Assad

According to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy adviser, she would order a “full reeview” of the Syrian war as her first task upon taking office, with an eye toward a “reset” of the conflict to shift focus toward attacking the Assad government and imposing regime change.

Clinton’s aide, former Pentagon chief of staff Jeremy Bash, insisted that Assad’s was a “murderous regime” and that US foreign policy would be to escalate both the war against ISIS and this new war against Assad to get both “out of there” at the same time.

Syria has been the subject of a lot of debate in the Obama Administration, with the Pentagon seeking a focus on ISIS, the CIA wanting to shift entirely to fighting Assad, and Secretary of State John Kerry negotiating a deal with Russia to expand the war to include al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front.

Though Bash didn’t cover where the Nusra Front would fit into this, the suggestion that Clinton’s administration would escalate attacks on both seems designed to split the difference and placate hawks on both sides of the issue. The Obama Administration has already been steadily escalating the war since it began, to little effect, and Clinton’s policy would be that, just moreso.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.