Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders hit Hillary Clinton over her support for regime change in Iraq and Libya, saying during Saturday’s Democratic debate that the former secretary of state’s push to remove Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi paved the way for ISIS.
“I worry too much that Secretary Clinton is too much into regime change and a little bit too aggressive without knowing what the unintended consequences might be,” Sanders said.
“Yes, we could get rid of Saddam Hussein, but that destabilized the entire region. Yes, we could get rid of Gaddafi, a terrible dictator, but that created a vacuum for ISIS. Yes, we could get rid of Assad tomorrow, but that would create another political vacuum that would benefit ISIS.”
Sanders has relentlessly criticized Clinton for voting in favor of the Iraq War in Oct. 2002 when she was in the Senate. As secretary of state, Clinton was one of the leading voices within the Obama administration pushing for Gaddafi’s removal. At the same time, she was receiving intelligence reports from her friend, Sidney Blumenthal, urging her to oust Gaddafi. Blumenthal was later found to have been working for a defense contractor which stood to profit from Gaddafi’s removal.
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