I wasn't comparing Trump to Clinton, just pointing out what would likely happen with Trump. When it comes down to brass tacks the difference between a Clinton and a Sanders presidency wouldn't be that great. Both would wield the veto pen about equally. Both would pick great Supreme Court justices. I don't think Clinton would be particularly eager to go to war, remember that one time she voted for a war and all the grief she's gotten from it? And as you said there are some conflicts that even a pacifist will not shy away from...
Sanders supported Bill Clinton’s war on Serbia, voted for the 2001 Authorization Unilateral Military Force Against Terrorists (AUMF), which pretty much allowed Bush to wage war wherever he wanted, backed Obama’s Libyan debacle and supports an expanded US role in the Syrian Civil War.
More problematic for the Senator in Birkenstocks is the little-known fact that Bernie Sanders himself voted twice in support of regime change in Iraq. In 1998 Sanders voted in favor of the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998, which said: “It should be the policy of the United States to support efforts to remove the regime headed by Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq and to promote the emergence of a democratic government to replace that regime.”
Later that same year, Sanders also backed a resolution that stated: “Congress reaffirms that it should be the policy of the United States to support efforts to remove the regime headed by Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq and to promote the emergence of a democratic government to replace that regime.” These measures gave congressional backing for the CIA’s covert plan to overthrow the Hussein regime in Baghdad, as well as the tightening of an economic sanctions regime that may have killed as many as 500,000 Iraqi children. The resolution also gave the green light to Operation Desert Fox, a four-day long bombing campaign striking 100 targets throughout Iraq. The operation featured more than 300 bombing sorties and 350 ground-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles, several targeting Saddam Hussein himself.
Even Hillary belatedly admitted that her Iraq war vote was a mistake. Bernie, however, has never apologized for his two votes endorsing the overthrow of Saddam.
In foreign affairs I'd have to give Hillary the edge due to her Secretary of State experience. In dealing with congress Bernie might come out ahead, he's been doing it a long long time. Neither really has much in the way of executive experience but I think she has a much better idea about what she's getting into once she's elected since she has already lived in that big white house for eight years and seen firsthand what it's like to be under that kind of pressure.
She'd likely use her bully pulpit to push for more social justice while Bernie would focus on economic equality. Either candidate would probably be a great president. It just turned out that Clinton is the one most likely to get the chance.
