[CNSNEWS] Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you knowKerry
Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a
lucky hat,conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State...
on Wednesday cited "reasons having to do with religion or politics" in a list of "root causes" of terrorism in which he also included factors ranging from tribalism to frustration and the desire for a sense of identity and purpose.
Goddam Lutherans. And Navajos. And teenagers.
Addressing the Oslo Forum in the Norwegian capital, Kerry disputed the notion that a "clash of civilizations" is underway, arguing that "there is nothing remotely civilized about the holy warriors that we confront in the world today" such as those in Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
of Iraq and Syria (ISIS/ISIS), Boko Haram
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
or Al-Shabaab
... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda...
.
"So no, this is not a clash of civilizations, this is a struggle between civilization itself and barbarism, between fundamental raw political exploitation and a mix of medieval and modern fascism
...a political system developed in Italy symbolized by the Roman
fasces-- thin reeds, each flimsy in itself but unbreakable when bound into a bundle. The word is nowadays thrown around by all sorts of people who have no idea what they're talking about...
, together at the same time," he said.
Calling for a need to have a comprehensive approach to counter the "root causes of violent extremism," Kerry advanced some factors contributing to radicalization. Among them:
--tribal or sectarian allegiances
--"reasons having to do with religion or politics"
--frustration over an inability to find meaning or economic opportunity
--hopes that a group like ISIS can provide "a sense of identity, a sense of purpose, a sense of power"
--"indignity and marginalization and inequality and corruption" which are used by terrorist groups as recruitment tools
--"a dangerous clash which we haven’t yet fully defined sufficiently between culture, religion, exploitation, and modernity."
It's only been fifteen years. Where the hell's JFK been? Upriver in Cambodia?