STANFORD, Calif. — Hillary Clinton, drawing a sharp contrast with Republican presidential candidates in the wake of the Brussels terror attacks, warned Wednesday in a counterterrorism policy address that in the fight against ISIS, America must “rely on what actually works — not bluster that alienates our partners and doesn’t make us any safer.”

The Democratic front-runner’s call for a comprehensive strategy aimed to underscore the former secretary of state’s global experience with terrorism issues while providing a stark contrast to two Republican presidential candidates — Sen. Ted Cruz and Donald Trump — who issued incendiary statements in the wake of the carnage.


Cruz called for police to “secure” U.S. Muslim neighborhoods and to launch ramped-up patrols in order to stave off the growth of potential extremism at home.

Trump, who called early on in the campaign for a ban on Muslims entering the country, advocated increased waterboarding and enhanced interrogation techniques to extract more information from terrorism suspects, while questioning the need for NATO.

Clinton said the GOP candidates' positions were both wrong and dangerous.

In a reference to Trump and his signature proposal to build a wall on the Mexican border, Clinton said: “Walls will not protect us from this threat. We cannot contain ISIS — we must defeat ISIS.”



“When other candidates talk about building walls around America, I want to ask them: How high does the wall have to be to keep the Internet out?”

With regard to Trump’s recent questioning of America's role in NATO, Clinton said, "Turning our back on our alliances, or turning our alliance into a protection racket, would reverse decades of bipartisan American leadership and send a dangerous signal to friend and foe alike. [Vladimir] Putin already hopes to divide Europe. If Mr. Trump gets his way, it’ll be like Christmas in the Kremlin. It will make America less safe and the world more dangerous."

In a reference to Cruz, she said, “It would also be a serious mistake to begin 'carpet bombing' populated areas 'into oblivion.' Proposing that doesn’t make you sound tough, it makes you sound like you’re in over your head. Slogans aren’t a strategy. Loose cannons tend to misfire. What America needs is strong, smart, steady leadership to wage and win this struggle.”

Clinton also slammed Cruz’s call for more surveillance of Muslims, saying, "One thing we know that does not work is offensive, inflammatory rhetoric that demonizes all Muslims. There are millions of peace-loving Muslims living, working, raising families, and paying taxes in this country. These Americans are a crucial line of defense against terrorism. They are the most likely to recognize the warning signs of radicalization before it’s too late, and the best-positioned to block it."

The former secretary of state’s nearly half-hour speech to a Stanford University crowd came during a fundraising swing in Northern California, and was delivered barely 24 hours after Brussels terrorist attacks that killed 30 and injured dozens in the Belgian capital.

Clinton delivered her response to the attacks before a bank of U.S. flags and an audience of about 135 invited guests, including Stanford faculty and students, and 75 members of the media in Stanford’s Encino Hall.

“ISIS is attempting a genocide of religious and ethnic minorities. It beheads civilians. It enslaves, tortures, and rapes women and girls," Clinton told the audience, which included Republican former Secretary of State George Shultz and Democratic former Secretary of Defense William Perry, who sat together front and center.

Clinton made the case that to defeat the kind of transnational threat posed by ISIS, the U.S. must reinforce the alliances — in particular, NATO — that have been pillars of American power for decades. She also identified steps which she said America's European partners could take to improve coordination and information-sharing to battle terrorism.

Noting that the U.S. faces an adversary that “knows no borders and is constantly adapting," Clinton drew on past addresses on the topic of terrorism in both Minneapolis and at the Council on Foreign Relations in arguing that the U.S. response must be just as “nimble” and comprehensive.

Clinton portrayed the fight against ISIS as a key to American leadership and the country’s future.

“This will be one of the most important challenges facing the next president who takes office on January 20,’’ Clinton said. “Our new commander in chief will walk into the Oval Office and find a world of hard choices and complex problems. That president will sit down at that desk and start making decisions that will affect the lives and livelihoods of every American and people around the world. So the stakes could not be higher.”

Clinton also said that in the war against ISIS, “We also have to stay ahead of the curve technologically. That does mean working with the brightest minds here in Silicon Valley to more effectively track and analyze ISIS’s social media posts and map jihadist networks online.”

The speech drew praise from Shultz, who said. “It’s a very important topic, and it’s important to have a strategy."

Perry, the former Clinton administration defense secretary, endorsed Clinton’s presidential bid and also praised the address.

“It was an excellent speech, and I particularly liked her saying that in fighting terrrorism, we should not abandon our allies, we should not abandon our people — including people of different faiths — and we should not abandon our principles,” ’he said.

Perry said she “was right” in criticizing both Trump and Cruz for what he called questionable policies on the wake of the Brussels attack.

“They deserved to be called out by name, in my opinion,’’ he said.

