Kerry defends Harf's jobs for jihadi strategy

PJ Media:

Secretary of State John Kerry told a congressman today to stop making fun of what State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said.

At this morning’s House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio) asked Kerry about Harf’s comments last week, in which she said “we cannot win this war” by killing ISIS and job development was one facet of the plan to combat extremism.

In clarifying her comments on CNN, Harf then said her argument about getting to the “root cause” of terrorism “might be too nuanced an argument for some.”

“Harf espoused the interesting proposition that we should create a jobs program for people who might be inclined to support groups like ISIS, jobs for jihadists. She didn’t call it that, but I will,” Chabot said in his questioning of Kerry. “And just where will these jobs come from? I guess not at the mall. It’s apparently too dangerous to work there now. And are these shovel-ready jobs, or are they yet to be created, like Keystone Pipeline jobs?”

“And Mr. Secretary, did Ms. Harf consult with anyone else in the State Department, yourself or anyone, before announcing this new initiative? If not, who did she consult with?” the congressman continued. “I realize that according to Ms. Harf, many of us are not nuanced enough to grasp the wisdom of such an enlightened proposal, but I and, I’m sure, some of my colleagues would appreciate some insight on where in the heck this idea came from.”

Kerry said that’s not what the deputy press secretary was saying “if you take the full breadth of what Marie Harf was talking about.”

“In fact, what she was talking about is the notion that if all we do is have a military approach to the problem of violent religious extremism, whether it’s Islamic or other — or whether there’s violent extremists, we’re going to fail,” he said. “You will have the next secretary of State or the one thereafter, a continuum of presidents coming to you with new acronyms for new groups that are a new threat.”
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The problem with Kerry and Harf is they keep coming up with things that give the enemy hope when the only way to defeat them is to make them believe their cause if hopeless.  No one  in the Obama State Department seems to comprehend this simple concept of warfare that has been demonstrated throughout history.  I think the problem is there probably should be a quota to limit the number of liberals in the State Department and they should create jobs for people who know how to really win wars.

The question Kerry should be made to answer at any hearing about this conflict is what are they doing to persuade the enemy his cause is hopeless?