Hillary Clinton is being sold as some kind of foreign policy genius, yet not knowing the location of Mosul is a large gaffe.
This geographic illiteracy, which came out during her third debate with Trump, was quickly noted by the Greens and Libertarians, according to US News & World Report (excerpts of its coverage below).
Greens:
"The fact that Hillary Clinton incorrectly identified Mosul as being on the border of Syria, despite having led us into war with Iraq and advocating U.S. intervention in Syria as secretary of state, highlights the insanity of our current bipartisan foreign policy," says Jill Stein, the Green Party presidential candidate who often polls fourth behind the major-party candidates and Johnson.
"The political and media establishment have built up Clinton as the best and most experienced candidate on foreign policy, when the reality is that her experience includes a trail of destruction and failed states, from Iraq to Libya and Honduras," she says in an emailed statement. "This is much more troubling than Gary Johnson's 'Aleppo moment,' yet we expect the corporate media will largely ignore it because their owners don't want to discredit the preferred candidate of Wall Street bankers and war profiteers."
Libertarians:
Though greeted with a yawn, Justin Raimondo, the editorial director of Antiwar.com, says Americans should care about Clinton's description of Mosul.
“It's concerning in the general sense that Hillary Clinton is simply getting a free pass from the media – and also that the media doesn't seem to know where Mosul is, either,” Raimondo says.
“It's more than merely concerning in a more specific sense because Mrs. Clinton's comments were uttered in the context of her strategic plan to take on ISIS,” he adds, using an alternative name for the Islamic State group. “If she really thinks that taking Mosul will somehow provide a gateway to ‘press into Syria,’ then she is in for a big surprise.”