Marie Harf: "Stop ISIS...Get Them Jobs"!

[GreenGreen]

Marie Harf, a spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department, said America can’t win against the Islamic State “by killing them” and ought instead to focus on addressing what she claimed was the root problem — their poor economy — and help them get jobs.

“We’re killing a lot of them, and we’re going to keep killing more of them,” she said during a televised segment on “Hardball” with Chris Matthews. “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. 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 …”

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news...artment-on-islamic-state-cant-/#disqus_thread

The democrats in the State Department under President Obama are actually saying poverty caused these people to be willing to kill themselves screaming Allah Akbar. Is it actually ok?

 

[justoh]

Sure, there is a connection between poverty and religion. http://thehumanist.com/news/national/why-are-the-poor-more-religious

That doesn't explain why there isn't a christian ISIS equivalent. Root cause can't be poverty. duh?

 

[oobydoobydoo]

Marie Harf, a spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department, said America can’t win against the Islamic State “by killing them” and ought instead to focus on addressing what she claimed was the root problem — their poor economy — and help them get jobs.

“We’re killing a lot of them, and we’re going to keep killing more of them,” she said during a televised segment on “Hardball” with Chris Matthews. “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. 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 …”

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news...artment-on-islamic-state-cant-/#disqus_thread

The democrats in the State Department under President Obama are actually saying poverty caused these people to be willing to kill themselves screaming Allah Akbar. Is it actually ok?

So, in your estimation, the abject poverty of the Palestinian people (who subsist on ~$1500/year per capita GPD while their "neighbors" the Isrealis make $30,000+) has nothing to do with Hamas, or terrorism? They just happen to be poor, like every other country that has this kind of insurgency. El salvador. Columbia. Palestine. Somolia.... it's just a coincidence that these countries harbor the vast majority of terrorists and insurgents....



You're not the brightest one, are you OP?

 

[ModerateRepZero]

I finished reading a book the other day called "Thieves of State", and one of the author's main arguments is that corruption, coupled with poor governance (and other things like ostentatious displays of wealth from corrupt public servants) leads people away from government and toward religious fundamentalism (which at least *appears* to be a better model for morality). People tend to ignore or downplay corruption as a factor of unrest, whether it's Egypt, Tunisia, or Afghanistan.

Poverty alone doesn't drive people to unrest. It's poverty, persistent and public corruption, as well as a lack of appeal to authorities or rulers, which drives people to Boko Harem, Taliban, etc.

Based on that book, I say that simply killing any and all ISIS members without reforming corrupt/dysfunctional government is futile; government atrocities, corruption, etc. will simply give more reason for people to seek an alternative, even a distasteful one.

 

[1prophet]

He's right, we should get them job training, perhaps as airline pilots, and then they won't hate us as much.

Just like these poor deprived souls here who started it all

Fact if this didn't happen,

ISIS wouldn't exist today because warmonger Bush wouldn't have an excuse to go into Iraq and apologist Obama wouldn't be fumbling around pretending to have a solution besides some jobs program.




And don't blame lack of funding for jobs,


look at these guys here hundreds of billions in oil wealth and instead of helping their fellow Muslims move forward towards modern society they spend millions if not billions brainwashing them into what you see today

Americans are so gullible and stupid, the neocons conservatives brainwash you to look for the cheapest prices so you can drive your behemoth suv/trucks on relatively cheap gas enabling and indirectly funding the middle east terrorists needs,

and then you have the idiot phony bleeding heart liberals with their apologetic multicultural bullshit equating terrorism with poverty who somehow miss the billions of oil dollars used to fund that terrorism which could wipe out most if not all of the poverty in that part of the world.

 

[Rakehellion]

That doesn't explain why there isn't a christian ISIS equivalent. Root cause can't be poverty. duh?

Because most Christians live in rich countries.

 

[Rakehellion]

Americans are so gullible and stupid, the neocons conservatives brainwash you to look for the cheapest prices so you can drive your behemoth suv/trucks on relatively cheap gas enabling and indirectly funding the middle east terrorists needs

Hate to break it to you, but the people in charge know that a few trillion dollars is worth way more than a few thousand lives every ten years.

 

[justoh]

Because most Christians live in rich countries.

That's wrong and wouldn't be a counterpoint were it not. Your reply to the other guy makes even less sense. Are you stoned?

 

[unokitty]

Marie Harf, a spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department...

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news...artment-on-islamic-state-cant-/#disqus_thread

The democrats in the State Department under President Obama are actually saying poverty caused these people to be willing to kill themselves screaming Allah Akbar. Is it actually ok?

Obama's State Department doubles down on jobs for ISIS...

Uno

 

[glenn1]

Osama bin Laden didn't come from poverty. Plenty of African countries are desperately poor and not breeding grounds for terrorists. This is just the left and Obama demonstrating that they are hacks and lack any original ideas or capacity to think beyond their own narrow bogeymen. This would be akin to a Republican saying people turn to Islamic extremism and become terrorists because of high taxes.

 

[fskimospy]

Osama bin Laden didn't come from poverty. Plenty of African countries are desperately poor and not breeding grounds for terrorists. This is just the left and Obama demonstrating that they are hacks and lack any original ideas or capacity to think beyond their own narrow bogeymen. This would be akin to a Republican saying people turn to Islamic extremism and become terrorists because of high taxes.

Which African countries were you thinking of?

 

[Jaskalas]

Americans are so gullible and stupid, the neocons conservatives brainwash you to look for the cheapest prices so you can drive your behemoth suv/trucks on relatively cheap gas enabling and indirectly funding the middle east terrorists needs.

Republicans want to exploit ALL of America's energy NOW, and drive the price down - thus ignoring OPEC for our energy needs. Won't matter too much though, rest of the world will be hungry for their oil even if we stopped. We don't have enough for everyone. So the sad part is, they will be paid one way or another.

 

[marvdmartian]

#JobsForISIS :sneaky:

 

[HomerJS]

Hey OP I have news for you. Our own military has said we cannot kill our way out of the existence of ISIS. Righties have a tendency towards simplistic one dimensional thinking.

If Obama would only use the word Islamic when referring to terrorism we would be successful.

Harf said just get them jobs and we can stop ISIS.

None of that is remotely true.


Its just as much an ideological battle as a gun battle. Opportunity for disaffected youth is just another part of the complicated strategy needed to ultimately defeat them.


1prophet: A more accurate assessment would be if we had just kept our eye on the real enemy after 9/11 instead of going into Iraq, ISIS would not have happened. Neocons wanted to go after Saddam in the 90s. They just needed an excuse and 9/11 was used. Bush/Cheney would have come up with some other excuse to invade Iraq.

 

[Moonbeam]

The CBD is characterized by fear. Isil scares them. Therefore Isil must die. Anything more complex than 'kill them' is also terrifying to the CBD. Anybody with any other point of view is dangerous and should also be killed. You don't want to be within reach of a CB defective when you say these things but if you are out of reach be sure you will be called a dangerous idiot.

 

[Matt1970]

The CBD is characterized by fear. Isil scares them. Therefore Isil must die. Anything more complex than 'kill them' is also terrifying to the CBD. Anybody with any other point of view is dangerous and should also be killed. You don't want to be within reach of a CB defective when you say these things but if you are out of reach be sure you will be called a dangerous idiot.

Maybe you need a job too.

 

[michal1980]

The CBD is characterized by fear. Isil scares them. Therefore Isil must die. Anything more complex than 'kill them' is also terrifying to the CBD. Anybody with any other point of view is dangerous and should also be killed. You don't want to be within reach of a CB defective when you say these things but if you are out of reach be sure you will be called a dangerous idiot.

In your world ISIS gives out hugs, and kittens to all the poor Muslims of the world.





How fucked in the head are you?

 

[brycejones]

Hey OP I have news for you. Our own military has said we cannot kill our way out of the existence of ISIS. Righties have a tendency towards simplistic one dimensional thinking.

If Obama would only use the word Islamic when referring to terrorism we would be successful.

Harf said just get them jobs and we can stop ISIS.

None of that is remotely true.


Its just as much an ideological battle as a gun battle. Opportunity for disaffected youth is just another part of the complicated strategy needed to ultimately defeat them.

I'm sorry but that kind of strategic long term thinking doesn't make for exciting talking points. In fact it almost sounds hard. Its much to easier to suggest that the entire middle east should just be glassed.

 

[Subyman]

There is some truth to the claims. Of course people here are being hyperbolic with their bashing of the OP and anyone that can see some truth in the statements. There is no debate about whether poverty breeds crime and unrest. That same logic can be extended to these impoverished religious hot beds. No one is saying you just have to go over there and rain random jobs on to the population and that will fix it. No one is saying to employee ISIS members at your local McDonalds. But this does give us a goal to move forward to. Not simply way-laying the entire region for the next 100 years.

Keynes implored the western world to help rebuild Germany after WWI. We didn't and instead made them one of the most indebted countries in the world, which (as Keynes predicted) led to another war (WWII.) After WWII we rebuilt Germany and helped the people stabilize under a better government. Did the same with Japan, worked well. IMO the ME situation is harder due to deep ideology, but the goal should be stabilization, not submission. First step in stabilization is give people something to work toward, like a job.

 

[feralkid]

There is some truth to the claims. Of course people here are being hyperbolic with their bashing of the OP and anyone that can see some truth in the statements. There is no debate about whether poverty breeds crime and unrest. That same logic can be extended to these impoverished religious hot beds. No one is saying you just have to go over there are rain random jobs on to the population and that will fix it. No one is saying to employee ISIS members at your local McDonalds. But this does give us a goal to move forward to. Not simply way-laying the entire region for the next 100 years.

Keynes implored the western world to help rebuild Germany after WWI. We didn't and instead made them one of the most indebted countries in the world, which (as Keynes predicted) led to another war (WWII.) After WWII we rebuilt Germany and helped the people stabilize under a better government. Did the same with Japan, worked well. IMO the ME situation is harder due to deep ideology, but the goal should be stabilization, not submission. First step in stabilization is give people something to work toward, like a job.

Stop making sense.

We need to kill everyone on Earth who doesn't have a job.

All problems solved, once and for all!

 

[Vic]

That doesn't explain why there isn't a christian ISIS equivalent. Root cause can't be poverty. duh?

You mean like the IRA before Ireland had an economy?

 

[Jaskalas]

Its just as much an ideological battle as a gun battle.

People that hold ideas can be conquered.

Iraq and Syria have land that no longer belongs to them. March in with superior military force, conquer our common enemy, and let the State's own armies restore order.

Yes, there's a solution with a gun in the case of a rouge militia in a desert.

 

[feralkid]

People that hold ideas can be conquered.

Iraq and Syria have land that no longer belongs to them. March in with superior military force, conquer our common enemy, and let the State's own armies restore order.

Yes, there's a solution with a gun in the case of a rouge militia in a desert.

Which state's own armies?

You mean the ones from Iraq and Syria?

Which rock have you been under for the last year?

 

[justoh]

You mean like the IRA before Ireland had an economy?

You think the IRA is equivalent to ISIS? Because they've both been labelled as terrorists? Do you have any non stupid examples of extant christian organizations comparable to isis?

 

[fskimospy]

You think the IRA is equivalent to ISIS? Because they've both been labelled as terrorists? Do you have any non stupid examples of extant christian organizations comparable to isis?

The Lord's Resistance Army.