WASHINGTON, Aug. 11 (UPI) -- Hillary Clinton did not mince words about President Barack Obama's foreign policy slogan, "Don't do stupid stuff," saying it is not an "organizing principle."
During an interview with The Atlantic, Clinton slammed the president's approach to foreign policy in Syria and other places during his time in office. Clinton served as secretary of state under Obama and is expected to run for the oval office in 2016.
"Great nations need organizing principles, and 'Don't do stupid stuff' is not an organizing principle," she said. Clinton tried to cushion the criticism by saying Obama is "trying to communicate to the American people that he's not going to do something crazy."
Clinton said she believes that the U.S. appears to be removing itself from the world stage, which she said contributed to the rise of the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria.
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"The failure to help build up a credible fighting force of the people who were the originators of the protests against Assad -- there were Islamists, there were secularists, there was everything in the middle -- the failure to do that left a big vacuum, which the jihadists have now filled," she said.
Clinton added that not getting involved in certain world problems does not necessarily correlate to better foreign policy decisions or global image.
"You know, when you're down on yourself, and when you are hunkering down and pulling back, you're not going to make any better decisions than when you were aggressively, belligerently putting yourself forward," she said. "One issue is that we don't even tell our own story very well these days."
Alluding to the possibility of a 2016 run, Clinton said some of her ideas on foreign policy may be old-fashioned, "but I'm about to find out, in more ways than one."
