In trying to outline how he would defeat the threat, Donald Trump launched several other false claims on Tuesday.
In trying to outline how he would defeat the threat, Donald Trump launched several other false claims on Tuesday.
A look at some of Mr Trump’s comments and how they adhered to the facts. “President Obama and Hillary Clinton should have never attempted to build a democracy in Libya, to push for immediate regime change in Syria or to support the overthrow of Mubarak in Egypt,” he said.
The facts: When the US led a coalition to bomb Libya in March 2011, it was sold as a humanitarian intervention. Obama vowed not to deploy US troops on the ground and focussed primarily on protecting Libyan civilians from dictator Muammar Gaddafi’s military forces. He didn’t promise a stable democracy there, like Mr Bush did while invading Iraq.
Five months into Syria’s conflict, Mr Obama urged President Bashar Assad to step aside. But Mr Obama did very little to realise such a result, to the great dismay of his GOP critics and even some in his own administration.
To this day, the US maintains its call for a Syria without Mr Assad, even as it works with the Syrian leader’s partners to try to engineer a united government that would keep Mr Assad in power, perhaps indefinitely.
While Mr Trump is right that Libya, Syria and Egypt appeared more stable seven years ago, his analysis leaves out the simmering resentment for autocratic governments that would bubble over during the 2011 Arab Spring. That cannot be ascribed to Mr Obama and Ms Clinton.
Mr Trump on Ms Clinton’s role in the Libya campaign: “With one episode of bad judgment after another, Hillary Clinton’s policies launched ISIS onto the world stage.”
The facts: It took three years after the US-led military campaign in Libya for ISIS to emerge in Iraq and Syria.
The group has its roots in a militant organisation known as Al-Qaeda in Iraq, which found haven in Syria after being nearly decimated in Iraq in 2007-2009.
Some experts say instability in Libya allowed the ISIS to spread to North Africa, particularly after it suffered losses in Syria and Iraq in 2015-16.
