(Newswire.net — February 18, 2015) — Warlords, heads up, a wind of change may start blowing from the State Department. Terror is impossible to defeat by terror, but by eliminating the reasons why anyone should join terrorists, such as the lack of job opportunities, it could possibly be defeated said State Department spokesperson Marie Harf.
In an interview with Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s ‘Hardball,’ Harf said that the American-led coalition against the Islamic State (IS, also known as ISIS/ISIL) will continue battering militant strongholds in the Middle East, however, that won’t be enough.
“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 lead people to join these groups, whether it’s a lack of opportunity for jobs, whether…”
At this point, Matthews interrupted Harf, arguing that it is utopia. Implying that such a strategy would never work, Matthews said world nations would never be able to put an end to poverty in our lifetimes.
Harf agreed that there is “no easy solution,” however, she said that the US 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.”
“I think this just underscores that this isn’t just a fight in Iraq and Syria and that isn’t just a fight about dropping bombs on terrorists,” Harf commented on growing terrorism threats in EU. “It is about how we stop the causes that lead to extremism,” She said.
“In a place like Libya, the fact that there’s no governance and no opportunities for young people, lets groups like ISIL grow there, flourish there, which is what you saw with this awful situation with these Egyptians,” Harf said referring to the mass beheading of the Egyptian Christians.
The White House is hosting a summit dedicated to countering violent extremism, Harf also mentioned in an interview. She said the summit will “highlight domestic and international efforts to prevent militants and their supporters from committing acts of violence.”