State Department Spokeswoman Marie Harf is at it again.
Last night, Harf sat down with Chris Matthews who had several straightforward questions about how the U.S. plans to deal with ISIS. It was one of those wonderful moments where Matthews was absolutely right.
“How do we stop this? … If I were ISIS, I wouldn’t be afraid right now… nothing we’re doing right now seems to be directed at stopping this [ISIS].” Matthews said.
Harf: Well, I think there’s a few stages here. Right now what we’re is trying to take their leaders and their fighters off the battlefield in Iraq and in Syria; that’s really where they flourish.
Matthews: Are we killing enough of them?
Harf: 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. But we cannot win this war by killing them. We cannot kill our way out of this war.
‘So how do we defeat ISIS’ you might be wondering? Don’t worry, the State Department is like, totally on top of this:
Harf: We need, in the medium and longer term, to go after the root causes that leads people to join these groups.
Fair enough. Cut out the root; kill the plant. But, somehow I don’t think this is exactly the root we’re looking for…
Harf: Whether it’s lack of opportunity for jobs…
JOBS. WE’RE GOING TO DEFEAT ISIS BY ENSURING THEY HAVE JOBS, YOU GUYS. And to ensure ISIS remains occupied enough to forget their sacred past time of lopping off heads, we must provide unrestricted access to basic human rights like free heath care, and wifi. Probably, anyway. Because at this point, why not?
Matthews: We’re not going to be able to stop that in our lifetime or fifty lifetimes. There’s always going to be poor people, there’s always going to be poor Muslims. As long as there are poor Muslims and the trumpet’s blowing, they’ll join. We can’t stop that, can we?
What follows can only be described as, The Most Ignorant Thing Anyone Has Said in the History of People Saying Ignorant Things, Middle East Edition:
Harf: 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. You’re right. There is no easy solution in the longterm to preventing and combating violent extremism. But if we can help countries work at the root causes of this. What makes these 17 year old kids pick up an AK-47 instead of trying to start a business, maybe we can try to chip away at this problem, while at the same time, going after the threat, taking on ISIL in Iraq, in Syria and helping our partners around the world.
I’m so old, I remember the Democrats railing against W for his “arrogance” in trying to establish Western style democracies in the Middle East. Yet here we have the very same people pondering why Syrians aren’t more entrepreneurial.
Matthews: This sounds like we’re going to get rid of juvenile delinquency over time in America by erasing poverty and improving education. Sure, over time. But the American people are getting humiliated morally but this.
Then entire exchange is here:
At this point, I sincerely hope Marie Harf is the worst spokesperson in the planet, and that what comes out of her mouth in no way reflects the DOS’ actual agenda or beliefs.
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