Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders each just offered detailed assessments of the conflict in Syria and how they would combat Islamic State militants.
In speeches in New York and Washington D.C., the two rivals for the Democratic nomination offered competing visions for how they would combat the threat of ISIS in the wake of the recent deadly attacks in Paris.
Here are the highlights of each speech.
Hillary Clinton
During a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, Clinton declared that "our goal is not to deter or contain ISIS, but to defeat and destroy ISIS."
During the speech -- explicitly focused on her assessment of the Syrian conflict and the Islamic State threat -- Clinton described her strategy, which she said expanded on the one President Obama is currently pursuing.
"It’s time to begin a new phase to intensify and broaden our efforts, to smash the would-be caliphate and deny ISIS control of territory in Iraq and Syria," Clinton said. "That starts with a more effective coalition air campaign, with more allied planes, more strikes and a broader target set."
Airstrikes though, Clinton added, "will have to be combined with ground forces actually taking back more territory from ISIS."
Hillary Clinton: "Our goal is not to deter or contain #ISIS, but to defeat and destroy ISIS." https://t.co/OFBaajpiEm— CSPAN (@cspan) November 19, 2015
In her remarks, Clinton echoed President Obama, and said she did not believe it was a "smart move to make" to "have again a hundred thousand American troops in combat in the Middle East."
Instead, she called on Arab nations to supply much of the military force on the ground.
"If we have learned anything from 15 years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is that local people and nations have to secure their own communities. We can help them and we should, but we cannot substitute for them," she said.
Clinton also made a forceful statement against Republicans who either want to stop Syrian refugees from entering the United States or focus refugee resettlement on Christians instead.
"Turning away orphans, applying a religious test, discriminating against Muslims, slamming the door on every Syrian refugee, that is just not who we are. We are better than that," she said.
Bernie Sanders
[img src="http://admin.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/bernie-sanders-georgetown-640x360.jpg" caption="Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks at Georgetown University in Washington, Thursday, Nov. 19, 2015, about the meaning of "democratic socialism" and other topics." credit="Carolyn Kaster" alt="Bernie Sanders"]
During a speech at Georgetown University focused on Sanders's political philosophy of "democratic socialism," the Vermont senator called on a "new and strong coalition of Western powers, Muslim nations, and countries like Russia" to combat ISIS. Sanders said that coalition should share counterterrorism intelligence, "turn off the spigot of terrorist financing" and "end support for exporting radical ideologies."
“To my mind, it is clear that the United States must pursue policies to destroy the brutal and barbaric ISIS regime, and to create conditions that prevent fanatical extremist ideologies from flourishing. But we cannot — and should not — do it alone," he said.
Sanders also called for the creation of an organization similar to NATO, focused on confronting today's security threats.
But, he added that "the fight against ISIS is a struggle for the soul of Islam."
"Countering violent extremism and destroying ISIS must be done primarily by Muslim nations – with the strong support of their global partners," he added.
.@BernieSanders says U.S. allies have done too little against ISIS #BernieAtGU pic.twitter.com/FG8zWectyM— Tom LoBianco (@tomlobianco) November 19, 2015
Sanders said that he supported continuing to allow refugees to resettle in the United States from Iraq and Syria, given the current strong vetting process in place.
"Accepting refugees is what America has always done. I think it's improper to turn our back on those people now," he said.