We've grown accustomed to Carly Fiorina's brand of truth-telling. She seems to lie so easily, I don't even think she knows the difference between fact and fiction at this point. The overarching theme of her Fox and Friends interview today is fearmongering. Rather than rehashing what she said verbatim, I feel it's important to discuss reality. I'm certain that you've heard her put down President Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Kerry plenty of times. She's so much more capable because she'd be a real Commander in Chief, not a 'politician.' You get the gist of her right wing talking points; the ones that are so easily discredited.
Her main caution is that everyone should be afraid of all the fighting-age men that are coming to our shores. There's only one problem with that: They aren't.
And if anyone is skittish about the idea of the United States providing a haven to people who used to live in the Middle East, it might interest them to know that just 2 percent of the more than 2,000 Syrian refugees who have so far been admitted into the U.S. are single men of fighting age, according to the State Department.
Another blanket statement she makes is with regards to the colossal failure of the president who refuses to call the Paris attacks the work of radical Islamic Jihadists. That is a false statement, as any knowledgeable practicing Muslim knows, there's nothing Islamic about these people. Many of them are just lost souls, who never practiced Islam, who unfortunately, for economic reasons, they turn to ISIS or Daesh for a path to lead their lives.
Rather than joining out of religious conviction, many recruits are driven to the organization for financial reasons. The economy of Syria has been decimated by the war, — especially in the rebel-held areas, which receive little-to-no government assistance and are often under siege or assault. Many in the rural areas of Iraq are also in economic crisis and believe the central government is misusing the oil wealth of their own territories. ISIS exploits this desperation, offering superior wages for those who join, whether on a freelance or regular basis. In short, a good many ISIS fighters are essentially mercenaries rather than zealots.
The media is complicit, insofar as it discusses ISIS primarily as a religious movement rather than a political one. It then ignorantly and condescendingly speculates ad infinitum about the merits of the group’s supposed theological views in relation to those of the broader Muslim community. This provides oxygen to a dangerous distraction from more serious and well-formed questions about how to undermine and ultimately overcome ISIS.
Naturally, Fiorina doesn't understand the nature of the problem in Syria. Honestly, I haven't found any Republican who truly understands the situation. Carly Fiorina probably doesn't care that France carved up Syria after World War 1, as she majored in medieval history, not Twentieth Century events. Why try to know more than what's on the test, right GOP? History always has blow backs and all of these candidates would be wise to know the subject, but they seem to be happy to ignore it. Paris, France was not chosen randomly. But if you say that there's a method to their madness, like Secretary Kerry, who said the Charlie Hebdo shootings had some rationale, albeit a sick and twisted one, you are automatically labeled a terrorist sympathizer and enabler.
Contrary to the strategic proposals from the West, it's not just let's simply remove Assad and all problems are solved. It's much more complex. If you recall, a decade ago, Syria was a nation that Jews, Christians, Muslim etc., all existed peacefully, comparatively speaking. Then came the effects of climate change and the horrible drought. The Republicans, including Fiorina, do not even acknowledge the proven science of man-made climate change, so they can't understand the scientific reality and disastrous consequences. In Syria, poverty ensued, hastening the civil war, and here we are today.
With poverty comes despair, and these so-called Islamic wars are not based on any actual religion, they are competing political and economic ideologies, battling for supremacy and survival. One such person who knows exactly what Syria has been through and the remedy for the horrific violence, is the Grand Mufti of Syria, Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun, who so perfectly explains how these jihadists have twisted the idea of Islam. Does their agenda have anything to do with Islam at all? Not the slightest.
If you want to create a true state, you need to build it on the basis of political values and democracy. We don’t impose any religion in Syria; we don’t say that there must be a Christian state, a Jewish state or a Muslim State. These ideas come from outside. The West is instigating such ideologies. The West is playing a big part in the process.
I think a state should be founded on strong political and cultural elite.
What we see in Syria today is similar to what happened in Yugoslavia - Croatia, Bosnia. There were major cultural elites there. But the West began to provoke different political and religious groups in order to start a civil war, which resulted in manslaughter.
So in Syria we have to build a society that will have room for all religious and ethnic groups. We see this kind of order in Russia. Religion is distorted by those who want to start new conflicts, wars…
Terrorism is a dangerous political trend. It is also a cultural trend. And we have to study it in order to fight it.
ISIL is trying to promote its political agenda through violence, using weapons. They tell their followers that they will go to paradise, “If you murder people, you will end up in paradise.” But this goes against the Prophet’s teachings, because, of course, nobody gets to paradise using these methods. We need to preach the idea that a person gets to paradise through cultural enlightening, education and solidarity.
It's personal, as he has lost his own son to these maniacs who are nothing like true Muslims.
Of course I won’t forgive the radicals who urge people to kill, who put themselves above others, who say they’ve created some ‘Islamic state’, mutilating the very tenets of Islam. I condemn those people and I’m never going to forgive them because they are playing games with people’s lives at stake.
It’s the leaders of the Gulf countries, Turkey and the America that should stand trial, because they supplied the arms. The weapons that killed my son came from them. To me, all the people who were killed at their hands are like my son. Every Syrian that died in this war is my son.
Imagine if even a handful of influential Republicans truly understood the multifaceted problems in Syria and proceeded in a fashion that could actually solve the humanitarian crisis? Carly Fiorina most certainly won't hear any of these inconvenient facts. She's too busy fabricating talking points to repeat over and over again, so she can seem really "capable" at the next clown car debate.
