--- title: Bernie Sanders Vows to Defend America in New Ad description: The Vermont senator pledged that "as president, I will defend this nation but I will do it responsibly," before proposing a coalition-led approach to defeating ISIS canonical: https://time.com/4187686/bernie-sanders-defend-america-new-ad/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-20T21:24:23.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T14:18:13.910Z article:section: Politics og:title: Bernie Sanders Vows to Defend America in New Ad og:description: Sanders pledged to defeat ISIS og:url: https://time.com/4187686/bernie-sanders-defend-america-new-ad/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt55d707ac426b8fae/698879e1cd1bba15146ff06b/bernie-sanders10.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders speaks at a campaign event in Sioux City og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Bernie Sanders Vows to Defend America in New Ad twitter:description: Sanders pledged to defeat ISIS twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt55d707ac426b8fae/698879e1cd1bba15146ff06b/bernie-sanders10.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Bernie Sanders Vows to Defend America in New Ad by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Jan 20, 2016 9:24 PM UTC  U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders speaks at a campaign event in Sioux City, Iowa, United States, January 19, 2016\. REUTERS/Jim Young TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY - RTX2355G U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders speaks at a campaign event in Sioux City, Iowa, United States, January 19, 2016\. REUTERS/Jim Young TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY - RTX2355GJim Young—Reuters by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Jan 20, 2016 9:24 PM UTC Bernie Sanders stood tough on national security in [an ad released Wednesday](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTR7CiWrb6k). The Vermont senator pledged that “as president, I will defend this nation but I will do it responsibly,” before proposing a coalition-led approach to defeating ISIS. Sanders says that his strategy for eliminating ISIS is based on the country’s experience with the war in Iraq. “I voted against the war in Iraq and that was the right vote,” Sanders said. “We must never forget the lessons of that experience. ISIS must be destroyed, but we should not do it alone.” Sander, who often focuses on economic inequality, is trying to pitch himself as the Democratic candidate who can win it all in November. To do that, he will have to convince voters that his foreign policy chops are up to par with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4187686/bernie-sanders-defend-america-new-ad/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4187686/bernie-sanders-defend-america-new-ad/"},"headline":"Bernie Sanders Vows to Defend America in New Ad","datePublished":"2016-01-20T21:24:23.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T14:18:13.910Z","description":"Sanders pledged to defeat ISIS","url":"https://time.com/4187686/bernie-sanders-defend-america-new-ad/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt55d707ac426b8fae/698879e1cd1bba15146ff06b/bernie-sanders10.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt55d707ac426b8fae/698879e1cd1bba15146ff06b/bernie-sanders10.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders speaks at a campaign event in Sioux City","caption":"U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders speaks at a campaign event in Sioux City","creditText":"Jim Young—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4187686/bernie-sanders-defend-america-new-ad/","name":"Bernie Sanders Vows to Defend America in New Ad"}}]}] ```