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Why
do we need a Henry Kissinger? We’e got someone even stupider than John Kerry. we've got Marie Harf!
US
cannot win war against ISIS by killing, they need ‘job
opportunities’ – State Dept
RT,
18
February, 2015
The
United States and its allies cannot defeat the Islamic State simply
by killing militants, said State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf,
adding that it must target the underlying reasons people join the
group, such as the lack of job opportunities.
Harf
made the comments during an interview with Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s
‘Hardball.’ She said that while the American-led coalition
against the Islamic State (IS, also known as ISIS/ISIL) will continue
battering militant strongholds in the Middle East, force will not be
enough on its own.
“We’re
killing a lot of them, and we’re going to keep killing more of
them. So are the Egyptians, so are the Jordanians – they’re in
this fight with us,”
Harf said. “But
we cannot win this war by killing them. We cannot kill our way out of
this war. We need in the medium to longer term to go after the root
causes that leads people to join these groups, whether it’s a lack
of opportunity for jobs, whether…”
Matthews
interrupted Harf at this point, arguing that world nations will never
be able to put an end to poverty in our lifetimes, implying that such
a strategy would never work.
The
statement, made by deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf on Chris Matthews’
Hardball on MSNBC, came after ISIS allegedly released a video showing
the beheading of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians. Matthews suggested to
Harf that the purpose of the act was to humiliate the West.
In
return, Harf suggested a soft power-like approach: “We
can work with countries around the world to help improve their
governance. We can help them build their economies so they can have
job opportunities for these people.”
She
conceded, however, that there is “no
easy solution.”
Earlier
in the interview, Mathews asked what the next steps were following
the news that 21 Egyptian Christians were recently beheaded and that
ISIS was gaining momentum in Libya, a country that lies perilously
close to Italy and, thus, Europe.
“I
think this just underscores this isn’t just a fight in Iraq and
Syria and that isn’t just a fight about dropping bombs on
terrorists. It is about how we stop the causes that lead to
extremism,” Harf said. “In a place like Libya, the fact there’s
no governance and no opportunities for young people it lets groups
like ISIL grow there, flourish there, which is what you saw with this
awful situation with these Egyptians.”
Harf
also mentioned that the White House is hosting a summit dedicated to
countering violent extremism – one that will highlight domestic and
international efforts to prevent militants and their supporter from
committing acts of violence.
Obama
administration officials also revealed on Tuesday their own social
media campaign as a counter measure to the slick production values
and social media savvy of ISIS through a State Department entity
created in 2009 – the Center for Strategic Counterterrorism
Communications. The White House plans to announce expansion of the
center “to harness all the existing attempts at counter messaging
by much larger federal departments, including the Pentagon, Homeland
Security and intelligence agencies.”Additionally, it will establish
connections to help the team coordinate with foreign allies, NGOs and
Islamic leaders opposed to ISIS.
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