"We cannot beat ISIS by killing them"

Dear State Department:

I wish there were some way to tell who watched the video before commenting. My rough estimate is that more than 90% of her speaking time was spent talking about the use of force against Da'esh. She discussed direct U.S. military action, multinational attacks, and pushed POTUS' initiative to get an AUMF for increasing U.S. military action.

When she actually said the words "job" and "unemployment," she was discussing only examples of methods for combating the symptoms of radical religious ideology. CPT (Join to see) pointed out that the Da'eshholes are "primarily motivated by religious ideology, not a lack of employment." Maybe that's true enough, but what causes illiterate, uneducated, hopeless young men to become susceptible to motivation by religious ideology? It could be illiteracy and a lack of education or hope, all of which feed each other. Add to that the social (un)balance in that part of the world where men are expected to wait until their 30s or 40s to wed, and then they scoop up teenage or 20-something wives. Moreover, I'll bet the rate of female infanticide is rather high there (as in China) exacerbating the dearth of women.

Getting back on topic. Whack-a-terrorist is not a strategy. "Kill 'em all" is not a strategy (let's not forget that attrition did not work ... ever, or at least in recent history). Imperial Japan did not surrender because we killed too many of their soldiers. They capitulated because we vaporized their civilians. Germany certainly didn't surrender because they ran out of soldiers. Korea, Viet Nam, etc.

GWOT Veterans are all, however reluctantly, students of counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency. Forgetting those lessons has proved detrimental to U.S. war efforts for more than a century. Based on many of the responses here, we've already forgotten them again.

Typical hogwash from an administration that believes it can state, comment, lie, cover up or stretch the truth on what ever they choose and the sheep will follow.

A job like filling grave yards? ISIS ideology needs to be wiped out of existence. Granted the more "western" views that the middle east gets will create hostile environments but in the next 20 years these fractions will be dissolving as long as we weed out the crazies.

In 2005-2006, most Iraqi's I met and dealt with wanted to advance, we just got to help them deal with the fanatics for now.

Is she really that blonde...LOL banging my head against the desk in disbelief.

We have enough Americans out there that do not have a job and underemployed working a part time job.

Why are even considering this option of giving taxpayers money to people who would like to see us dead?

I agree that we can't win this war by killing ISIS personnel. But you know what, it doesn't bother me when I read that we sent a bunch to meet their maker.

I think she was spot on with what she said, "We can't kill our way out of this war." Anyone who has, somewhat of, an understanding of how extremists are created and evolve would know that. To suggest that the DOS wants to employ ISIS is a little...well its just wrong. People should never be mocked for trying to understand complex issues that are put in front of them. I think the point in which she was trying to make is that the easy fix to this problem would be to continue on the path that we are on now. However, to win if at all possible, we must understand the reasons why people sympathize with ISIS.

I wont disagree. We should give ISIS jobs. They can have the jobs of policing up bodies as we destroy them!

This topic reminds me of something I read once, and I agree with it:

A friend of mine from Texas explained it all to me. "Here in West Texas I have rattlesnakes on my place, living among us. I have killed a rattlesnake on the front porch. I have killed a rattlesnake on the back porch. I have killed rattlesnakes in the barn, in the shop and on the driveway. In fact, I kill every rattlesnake I encounter.
"I kill rattlesnakes because I know a rattlesnake will bite me and inject me with poison.

I don't stop to wonder why a rattlesnake will bite me. I know it will bite me because it's a rattlesnake and that's what rattlesnakes do.

I don't try to reason with a rattlesnake. I just kill it. I don't try to get to know the rattlesnake better so I can find a way to live with the rattlesnakes and convince them not to bite me. I just kill them.

I don't quiz a rattlesnake to see it I can find out where the other snakes are, because (a) it won't tell me, and (b) I already know they live on my place. So I just kill the rattlesnake and move on to the next one.

I don't look for ways I might be able to change the rattlesnake to a non-poisonous rat snake---I just kill it. Oh, and on occasion, I accidentally kill a rat snake because I thought it was a rattlesnake at the time. Also, I know for every rattlesnake I kill, two more are lurking out there in the brush. In my lifetime I will never be able to rid my place of rattlesnakes. Do I fear them? No!
Do I respect what they can do to me? Yes! And because of that respect I give them the fair justice they deserve...I kill them.
Maybe as a country we should start giving more thought to the fact that these jihadists' are just being like rattlesnakes - and act accordingly!"