Free Republic

President Obama doubled down Thursday on his strategy for confronting terrorism, one that increasingly speaks of long-term social solutions, but that seems to go out of its way to stop short of addressing the more immediate challenge: how to stop the barbaric onslaught and spread of the Islamic State and other Islamic radical groups. Declaring, "We are not at war with Islam," Obama capped his White House summit on "violent extremism" with a repeat of his message that the international community needs to address economic and political "grievances" that terrorists exploit. Obama acknowledged the "unspeakable cruelty" inflicted by the Islamic...

And we will lose the war on terror. Marie Harf, the cretinous propagandist and campaign veteran installed by the Obama administration at the State Department — the misfit who plays Messy Marvin to Jen Psaki’s feckless Pippi Longstocking — has called down upon herself a Malibu mudslide of mockery and derision for suggesting that what’s really needed in the war against the Islamic State et al. is better employment opportunities — “jobs for jihadis,” as her critics put it. She later explained that her observations unfortunately were “too nuanced” for the simple minds of the dunderheads who twice elected her...

RUSH: I don't know, man. If I'm Obama, I might be starting to have a little problem with Marie Harf. Not over what she's saying. I mean, that's right where he wants her to be, but she's becoming a bigger media personality than Obama is. And that kind of stuff doesn't sit well with people like The One. Anyway, she's doubled down. You know, yesterday she said that the problem with ISIS is we're never gonna beat 'em by killing them. We can't outkill them. We can't kill 'em in war. We need to get them jobs. So everybody had...

The State Department’s Marie Harf got herself into trouble yesterday by employing a Bush-era talking point about the inability to “win this war by killing” the terrorists, adding, before being cut off by an incredulous Chris Matthews, that “we need in the medium- and long-term to go after the root causes that lead people to join these groups, whether its lack of opportunity for jobs…” The ridicule rolled in swiftly. Harf, defensive and confused, seemed to conclude that she was witnessing an irrational backlash driven by pure partisanship, and took to the Twitters to point out that all she was...

ISIS isn’t about Islam – it’s about jobs! Department of State spokeswoman Marie Harf is lowering the bar yet again when it comes to intelligence in the Obama administration. If anyone doubts that, even Chris “tingles” Matthews from MSNBC is crying foul this time around. The official statement out of our State Department is that Islamic extremism is not the root cause of terrorism. Lack of jobs is the real problem.

  “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 lack of opportunity for jobs…” So you see, ISIS wants – in no particular order – exactly  what Americans want: Good jobs and a living wage ($15/hour) Because every vote counts Free community college tuition Because somebody has to flip burgers for $15/hour (and every vote counts) Common sense gun control Who can’t support common sense measures? An end to the Republicans’ War on Women Except it’s...

The First Law of Holes, a proverb generally attributed to the British Labour Party’s Denis Healy, states, “If you are in one, stop digging.” Marie Harf is in the process of discovering the cost of ignoring that rare bit of wisdom from a committed leftist. Yesterday, appearing with Wolf Blitzer, she compounded her gaffe of Monday, suggesting that jobs programs would be the solution to the threat posed by ISIS. Mediaite chronicles the further excavation:

Has Marie Harf just dug the hole she's in a little deeper? Morning Joe invited the State Department spox on today to give her a chance to clarify what she said to Chris Matthews about the US being unable to "kill our way" out of the ISIS problem and the need to focus on the "root causes" of terrorism. After brushing off the suggestion by General Michael Hayden that she'd like a "mulligan" on those remarks, Harf attempted to distract from the focus on Islamic terrorism. Discussing this week's White House summit on "extremism," Harf cited the Lord's Resistance Army...

(snip) Tonight, she joined Wolf Blitzer on CNN’s The Situation Room and attempted to clarify her point. “I’m not the first person to say something like this,” Harf said. “Military commanders that we’ve had throughout many years here fighting this war on terrorism have said the exact same thing, that in the short term when there’s a threat like ISIL. We’ll take direct military action against these terrorists. We have done that. We are doing that in Iraq and Syria. But longer term, we have to look at how we combat the conditions that can lead people to turn to...

At the White House Summit on Extremism That Shall Remain Unspecified Because Violent Followers Belonging To Unnamed Extremist Movement Might Take Extreme Offense And Act Extremely, the feds are touting a groundbreaking new strategy to fight terrorists. Just kidding. It's actually the same old futile strategy that big-government liberals use to cure everything: mo' money, mo' money, mo' money. Instead of killing jihadists, keeping them off of our soil, locking up their poisonous spiritual agitators and shutting off their terror-funding pipelines, President Obama called on America and the world to "invest" in unnamed immigrant "communities" vulnerable to unnamed extremism. Some...

Poor Marie Harf. The State Department’s deputy spokesman is being mercilessly mocked for an interview she gave to MSNBC’s Chris Matthews in which she said, of the conflict with the Islamic State: “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—”

Enjoy the mocking of Marie Harf. Job training for ISIS, my butt. DOCUMENT - non-official State Department job training announcement for members or prospective members of ISIS. You are bidding on a document that will be placed in a cheap frame from the local $.99 store. It may become an interesting piece of historical memorabilia that you can show off when naive leftist airheads visit your home or business. You know the ones. They think John Lennon's "IMAGINE" is the template for dealing with evil in the world. And they loved the video of the children in West L.A. forced...

Wolf Blitzer invited Marie Harf on CNN’s Situation Room this afternoon. Blitzer sought her out to expand on her remarks on the administration’s approach to dealing with the Islamic State terrorists. Harf thinks that we must attack old-fashioned “root causes” of the material kind. Harf is promoting Great Society liberalism as the answer to “violent extremism.” Great Society liberalism couldn’t even cut it in the United States with more limited (if still ambitious) goals. Touting the rollout of Great Society liberalism worldwide as the answer to religious fanaticism betrays a mind-boggling stupidity. Jobs programs don’t quite cut it when you’re...

RUSH: Now, there's more outrageous, just embarrassing stuff out there. I can't really believe it. I feel like I'm still watching the Saturday Night Live 40th anniversary show with this next one. Have you heard about Marie Harf at the State Department and what she said? She was on MSNBC last night, and we have a ban on all audio from MSNBC. She was on with Chris Matthews. Even Matthews... He was doing everything he could to agree with her and support her, but even he thought he was listening to a lunatic. Marie Harf said, "We cannot win the...

That's right. To reiterate, if the quote by Mary Harf, Deputy Spokesperson for the US Department of State, made on MSNBC with Chris Matthews, didn't resonate, I'll repeat it once again. If ISIS Members Had Decent Jobs They Wouldn't Be Beheading Christians. I have to assume whatever comments she makes in her official capacity as Deputy Spokesperson for the US Department of State on a news program would be, I believe, the official policy of the current administration, I think. Marie Elizabeth Harf (born June 15, 1981) is the deputy spokesperson for the US Department of State and a...

What the West really needs to take on the Islamic State is ... a jobs program. That's what a top State Department spokeswoman suggested when asked in a TV interview Monday night about what the U.S.-led coalition is doing to stop the slaughter of civilians by Islamic State militants across the region. "We're killing a lot of them, and we're going to keep killing more of them. ... But we cannot win this war by killing them," department spokeswoman Marie Harf said on MSNBC's "Hardball." "We need ... to go after the root causes that leads people to join these...

State Department Spokesperson Marie Harf told Chris Matthews that ISIS can be stopped if we just create jobs for them. She is literally living in an alternate reality. Guess what happens if we stop trying to kill ISIS? They grow stronger and keep killing the infidels.

State Department Spokesperson Marie Harf told Chris Matthews tonight that we cannot win this war with ISIS by killing them. She said we have to get to the root cause of why people are attracted to Jihad — you know like poverty, jobs, etc…

The U.S. can’t defeat the Islamic State by “killing them,” State Department Spokesperson Marie Harf told MSNBC’s Chris Matthews on Monday night. “We’re killing a lot of them, and we’re going to keep killing more of them. 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,” Harf said. Instead, she said the U.S. needs to focus on the “medium to longer term to go after the root causes that leads people to join these groups,” such as...

State Department Spokesperson Marie Harf told Chris Matthews tonight that we cannot win this war with ISIS by killing them. She said we have to get to the root cause of why people are attracted to Jihad — you know like poverty, jobs, etc… “We’re killing a lot of them and we’re going to keep killing more of them. 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...