2020 candidates promise to withdraw U.S. combat troops, but stay silent on drone strikes

Tuesday night's Democratic presidential candidate debate focused heavily on foreign policy. The candidates sparred over the question of combat troop withdrawal, with Elizabeth Warren stating that she backs the withdrawal of all combat troops from the Middle East. But Phyllis Bennis, fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, argues that this is not enough. "When we start saying we're going to pull out the combat troops — in a sense, that is the easy part," says Bennis. "We have to recognize combat troops are not the ones who have been killing people — probably since about 2011. The killing of civilians, in particular, is being carried out by special forces, by bombings, by drones." Bennis criticizes the discourse of American exceptionalism that shrouded the entire debate. "Across the board — particularly from the more centrist candidates, but really across the board — there was a focus on what is going to happen to Americans — American jobs, American soldiers. We did not hear about human rights and the rest of the world."

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