Telling U.S. Embassy staff that the Jan. 7 terrorist attacks killing 12 on French satiric magazine Charlie Hebdo has a different rationale than the Nov. 13 massacre killing 129, 70-year-old Secretary of State John Kerry showed his age. Kerry’s gaffe rocked the French press, reverberating across the pond to the U.S. Congress. Saying the Charlie Hebdo killings appeared to have a “motivation,” namely, depicting images of the Prophet Mohammed, Kerry showed his tone-deafness to terrorism, mirroring his boss President Barack Obama. Obama’s often too slow to condemn terrorist attacks in Israel, insinuating that legitimate grievances lead to terrorism. Obama’s approach to Syria showed that he learned little from Sept. 11 and the ensuing war on terror, designed, for better or worse, to prevent future attacks on American soil. Last weekend’s terrorist attacks in Paris had no rationale.
Kerry’s remarks mirror terrorist propaganda that stretch logic to the breaking point justifying suicide bombing and mass murder. “We have avenged the Prophet Mohammed,” said terrorist in the wake of Charlie Hebdo, no different than their frequent refrain while committing terrorist acts of Allahu Akbar, translated “God is great.” “There was a particularized focus and perhaps even a legitimacy in terms of—not a legitimacy, but a rationale that you could attach yourself to somehow and say, OK, they’re really angry because of this or that,” said Kerry, immediately receiving public wrath on both sides of the Atlantic. Kerry’s comments were so misguided, so outrageous, so offensive, it prompted GOP presidential candidate former New York Gov. George Pataki to call for his resignation. More than resigning, the White House should take a hard look at its terrorism policy.
Post-Sept. 11 U.S. terrorism policy required elected officials to denounce terrorism, wherever it was found, not find justifications. Bin Laden—and now ISIS’s chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi—find plenty of reasons for mass murder, frequently blaming beheadings and suicide on bombings on the West’s war on Islam. Kerry played right into al-Qaeda and ISIS propaganda, finding a rationale for mass murder. “This Friday was absolutely indiscriminate. It wasn’t to aggrieve one particular sense of wrong. It was to terrorize people,” said Kerry, not realizing how far he’d gone off the rails. With that kind of lousy judgment, it’s inconceivable that Kerry’s equipped to lead the State Department. There’s no way to un-ring the bell from egregious gaffes showing a lack of savvy and restraint needed to run the State Department. Former GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was horrified.
Whether terrorist attacks were limited to one site, like Charlie Hebdo or spread over multiple venues, the attacks were 100% unjustified violence. Perverted terrorist logic is no substitute for the clarity that no terrorist attack can be tolerated in any orderly society. Kerry’s remarks mirror the White House approach to terrorism, pushing all common sense under the bus. Failing to act to contain ISIS in Syria resulted in the Paris attacks, promising, as CIA Director John Brennan said Nov. 16, to wash up on U.S. soil. Instead OF insisting on Arabs doing the heavy lifting, Obama should have fashioned a counter-terrorism policy that went after gathering threats. Letting ISIS fester for years was the same old approach as former President Bill Clinton, who let Bin Laden run wild until he eventually staged Sept. 11. Failing to beat back ISIS in Iraq in Syria showed that Obama had no real counter-terrorism policy.
Kerry’s remarks about “particularized” terrorist incidents show the White House isn’t serious about meeting its duties in the war on terror. Regardless of past mistakes or potential sacrifices today, Obama must assess the terrorist risk to defend U.S. national security. While he says his first mission is to keep Americans safe, letting ISIS run wild does exactly the opposite. Clinton also watched during his presidency Bin Laden lash out at U.S. sovereignty, without any real consequences. Shooting Cruise missiles at Bin Laden’s training camps near Kabul in 1998 did nothing to prevent Sept. 11. Falling into the same trap, Obama’s been so consumed with Bush’s past mistakes he ignored his duty to protect U.S. national security. “It does reveal an underlying view of these things that is really harmful and . . . that is damaging,” said McCain, commenting about the White House’s bereft terrorism policy.
Kerry’s remarks embarrassed the White House but also the entire U.S. government. Focused on getting rid of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the White House adopted the same stance as ISIS and al-Qaeda seeking to oust al-Assad’s Shiite government. White House officials have only recently acknowledged the logic behind Russian President Vladimir Putin’s position that toppling al-Assad would repeat the same mistakes in Iraq and Libya. Since blowing a Russian jetliner out the sky, Putin has relentlessly pursed ISIS, doing more damage in three days than the White House bombing campaign in 18 months. Kerry’s loud denunciations of Putin have sent U.S. Russian-relations to the lowest level since the Cold War. Kerry’s feeble comparison between Charlie Hebdo and recent Paris terrorist attacks raise serious doubts about his fitness for duty.
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