Kerry sees Islamic State as ‘gravest extremist threat faced by our generation’

 

Secretary of State John F. Kerry on Thursday called the Islamic State “the gravest extremist threat faced by our generation and the embodiment of evil in our time,” describing them as combining “medieval and modern fascism” and comparing them to the enemies the United States faced in last century’s world wars.

But Kerry, in an impassioned speech, also countered criticism that the United States is more interested in defeating the militants than in helping Syrians fight the civil war against President Bashar al-Assad. The two battles, he said, are inter-related, and U.S. diplomatic and military actions in Syria are “mutually reinforcing.”
“The more progress we make on” replacing Assad with a transitional government, Kerry said, “the more likely we are to succeed” in both defeating the Islamic State and preventing the further spread of instability in the Middle East.

Kerry’s hastily scheduled speech, delivered at the U.S. Institute of Peace, came as he departed for the second round of a newly invigorated diplomatic effort to forge a political solution to the civil war. In Vienna on Saturday, Kerry will meet with his counterparts from 19 countries and organizations, including Russia and Iran, Assad’s main backers.


After years of failed diplomatic efforts, Kerry indicated that Russia’s newly begun air campaign on Assad’s behalf, while challenging, could present an opportunity to act on a shared international belief in the danger posed by the Islamic State.
“There are moments in managing world affairs when the elements required for progress simply do not exist, but time and turbulence can generate new possibilities,” Kerry said.
“We do not know for sure whether the right possibilities have yet come together in connection with Syria,” he added. “We do not know for certain whether the kind of political transition we seek in that country can be achieved.”
Although they have declared themselves enemies, Kerry said, Assad and the Islamic State actually have a symbiotic relationship and are “dependent on each other. . . . In fact, they even do business with each other — buying and selling oil.”

Even as the diplomatic track continues, he said, the fight against the Islamic State has also been expanded. President Obama “over the last month . . . has directed every member of his national security team to pick up the pace and move forward with ideas for degrading and defeating Daesh more rapidly, more completely, and permanently.”

Obama recently authorized the deployment of 50 Special Forces troops to aid Syrian and Arab Kurdish fighters against the Islamic State, which is also known as Daesh, ISIS and ISIL, along with shipments of supplies and ammunition. New offensives by Iraqi troops, backed by American air support, have begun against entrenched militant forces in that country.

In a sharp response to critics, including both Republicans and Democrats who have charged Obama with failing to forcefully combat Assad and the militants, Kerry said: “I want to be very clear. From the beginning of this crisis, there has not been a single idea for addressing the Syrian conflict that has been discussed in public that hasn’t been the subject of intense scrutiny within the administration.”

“Whatever questions one might have about the content of our policy, there should be no doubt about the effort made to consider every single option for ending this crisis.”
“The stakes could not be higher,” Kerry said. “We are on the right track, and we are making gains, and we are clear about the road ahead.”

Listing policy successes, Kerry noted that the U.S.-assembled international coalition against the Islamic State has been in operation for only 14 months, and he said that “we are just getting started.”
“We now know more about the enemy than we did and more about what has worked and what has not. And so, at the president’s direction, and with those lessons in mind, we are stepping up our strategy in all its aspects.”