A professor at Ohio State University who served as the executive officer in Iraq to General David Petraeus said Thursday said he will vote for likely Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton because Republican Donald Trump is "extremely ill-suited" to be president.

WASHINGTON � A professor at Ohio State University who served as the executive officer in Iraq to General David Petraeus said Thursday said he will vote for likely Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton because Republican Donald Trump is �extremely ill-suited" to be president.

In a scathing denunciation of the expected Republican presidential nominee, retired U.S. Army Colonel Peter Mansoor said Trump was �incapable of fulfilling the duties� of president and complained the New York billionaire �has no principles. Tell me his core philosophy besides Trump?"

Mansoor, who holds the Gen. Raymond E. Mason chair in military history at Ohio State, said he has never voted for a Democratic presidential candidate, backing every GOP nominee from Ronald Reagan in 1980 until Mitt Romney in 2012. But he said he so strongly objects to Trump, he would vote for Democratic Sen. Bernie Sanders if he were the nominee because �at least he has a soul."

In a foreign policy speech Thursday in San Diego, Clinton, a former secretary of state under President Barack Obama and two-term U.S. senator from New York, assailed Trump�s foreign policy ideas as �dangerously incoherent.�

While acknowledging that Clinton is not �someone I am excited about in terms of president,� Mansoor said �she would be better than Donald Trump and she is capable of assuming the office.�

�I think she has enormous capabilities,� Mansoor said. �She is well-read, she studies foreign policy and national security. She has a long track record that makes her open to criticism, but at least she has a long track record, which means she has been in the arena. Where has Trump been? Boardrooms and reality TV � and that is a far cry from the Oval Office.�

Earlier this year, Mansoor joined a group of Republican national security experts who signed a letter saying they would not support Trump.

jtorry@dispatch.com

@jacktorry1