A rare true statement from the Secretary of State. And of course the threat of the Islamic State is increased by the fact that Kerry and his cohorts refuse to acknowledge the ideology, beliefs, motives and goals of the Islamic State, and instead pretend that they are all other than what they really are. This denial will only lead to disaster.
“John Kerry: Daesh biggest threat to US, not Russia,” Middle East Monitor, July 11, 2015 (thanks to Bradamante):
The top U.S. diplomat doesn’t agree that Russia poses the greatest threat to the U.S., a State Department spokesman said Friday.
“Certainly, we have disagreements with Russia and its activities along or within the region, but we don’t view it as an existential threat,” said Mark Toner.
“Secretary [John Kerry] doesn’t agree with the assessment that Russia is an existential threat to the United States, nor China, quite frankly.”
Toner’s comments were in response remarks by Joseph Dunford, nominee to become the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who said during his confirmation hearings that Russia presents the greatest threat to U.S. national security.
“What the secretary does consider an existential threat is the rapid growth of extremist groups like Daesh, particularly in ungoverned spaces,” Toner said.
The analysis of Russia comes amid one of the worst periods in Russian-U.S. relations since the Cold War concluded in 1991, prompted in large part by Russia’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula and support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Daesh and al Qaeda’s “ability to attract foreign fighters” present “real and tangible threats” to the U.S., Toner said….
Voytek Gagalka says
OMG! I cannot believe my “ears” reading that! Did he really said that?? If so, that’s remarkable reverse from his boss’ previous position. But, of course, they both have long, long way to come fully to their senses and recognize reality.
Huck Folder says
“Certainly, we have disagreements with Russia and its activities along or within the region, but we don’t view it as an existential threat,” said Mark Toner.
“Secretary [John Kerry] doesn’t agree with the assessment that Russia is an existential threat to the United States, nor China, quite frankly.”
Umm. Isn’t using the phrase “existential threat” twice like that, tantamount to saying that IS IS an ET?
ECAW says
Enough of this existentialism. Are we in danger of realising that life is absurd?
No, he means a survival threat. But even there he is wrong. The greatest threat to our survival (as a civilisation) is not “the rapid growth of extremist groups like Daesh, particularly in ungoverned spaces” but the rapid growth of Muslim populations in the West and the stealth jihad of groups like the Muslim Brotherhood.
ISIS is bad news for everyone in the vicinity but is our best ally in rousing Western populations from their slumber and prompting them to look at the threat from within.
Sadly, it’s likely to come at the cost of many more atrocities on our streets but better that than to wake up in 40 years time and find 40% of the population is Muslim and our grandchildren are faced with the choice between subjugation and civil war.
shortfattexan says
You beat me to it.
I was going to make that exact same point.
Violent jihad, as bad as it is, can never destroy the US. But “stealth jihad”, or “demographic jihad”, or “immigration jihad”, or whatever you want to call it, most definitely can destroy, not just the US, but all of Western civilization.
Not only can stealth jihad destroy the US, but unless we make some significant changes, it will destroy us. It is easy for us Americans to look at the current state of affairs in Europe and feel superior, saying “We wouldn’t put up with that crap in America!” But the truth is we are on the exact same path at the Europeans – they just have a head start on us.
Bamaguje says
So it’s no longer global warming as Obama would have us believe.
Actually, methinks the “death to America” Mullahs of the Islamic Republic (Iran) – Shiite version of ISIS – are more dangerous than the Caliphate wannabe – Islamic State.
Bamaguje says
Iran is developing nuclear weapons and ICBMs that can deliver them to the “great Satan.”
And the “God damn America” traitor in the White House is enabling the “death to America” Mullahs.
Arthur says
Agreed. Islamic State might cause repeated small scale attacks and damage infrastructure, but it’s not like they would ever be an occupying force or nuclear capable on their own. Iran and Pakistan continue to be the existential threat because of the risk of a nutcase getting their hands on nukes. I wouldn’t turn a blind eye on Russia, though. China’s got its own economic problems.
Guy Macher says
Did Hell freeze over!?
Don McKellar says
A conversation in 1941: “Nazi Germany is the greatest threat to the United States.” “Okay, so what are their ideology, their beliefs, their goals, their motives?” “Oh, we can’t go by that — they’re a perversion of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf, whom our trusted “go to people” assure us is benign! We can’t look to that for an explanation!”
Alternative future in 2015: “Zieg Heil, my Fellow Americans!” said the President.
A conversation in 2015: “The Islamic State is the greatest threat to the United States…” “Well, they’ve got nothing to do with Islam, so we can’t look there for their ideology, beliefs, goals, and motives!”
Conversation in 2035: “Allah Ahkbar, my Fellow Americans!” said the President.
Oh, wait, that last bit could be set in 2015…
nicu says
Well said !
But Islamic State will not be fight by anyone –that’s the difference !!
They get even supported by the West and Europe is flooded by Islamists and get a pampered and protected life !
Angemon says
Ah, there it is – never mind rearming China and Russia, it’s the “JV team” that the US needs to worry about. He’s right, but for the wrong reasons (downplaying Russia and China) – sometimes two wrongs do make a right.
Jaladhi says
I wish these clowns will make up their minds – one day the chief honcho of the States says ISIS is JV and the next day assistant says ISIS is the biggest threat to USA. These people are jokers and theyare leading the country. No wonder it is going down the tube fast. The biggest morons are the people who will elected them and will elect them again if given a chance.
wildjew says
For those who read about these things, it is pretty well known Iran will work with Sunni jihadists when it comes to murdering infidels. Iran had a hand in the 9/11/2001 attacks. Is there any doubt Iran will hand nuclear weapons and devices off to Sunni jihadi groups and cells if they will use them here in the West?
jewdog says
No, Russia is the biggest threat because it is an expansionist state which has a military and nuclear arsenal that can seriously damage the US and Western allies and because it partners with and strengthens anti-Western states like Iran that are much stronger than ISIS.
Right now, ISIS is mainly a threat to other Muslims and Muslim states, which actually is helpful, but it does have the potential to become a strategic threat if it gets hold of advanced weapons.
I have to say that I distrust Kerry in what he says. He probably is trying to cozy up to Iran for the nuke deal by displaying his anti-ISIS credentials, rather than saying anything meaningful about Islamic threats in general. The result will be the usual attempt to defeat Islamic imperialism by proxy, this time through our new best friend, “moderate” Iran.
mortimer says
Putin is a threat to all the little countries in Eastern Europe. All of these little states need to be sheltered in the arms of NATO. Putin is not a threat to the US. He doesn’t hate the US, but merely thinks US leaders to be monumentally naïve about many matters. Putin sincerely believed the world would allow him to annex eastern Ukraine.
jewdog says
Ukraine is the largest country in Europe and has 45 million people – and then there’s Poland, which is not so little. In the process of protecting them we could find ourselves seriously challenged. And Putin wants to put nukes in Crimea – and he may go further. Iran, China and North Korea complete the picture and it’s fairly grim.
abad says
So sayeth Lurch.
mortimer says
John Kerry has been learning on the job, it seems and looking for deeper answers than Obama has. He will eventually learn too much about the standard, Sharia-law-approved doctrine of jihad. When Kerry has a perfect understanding of jihad, the mullahs will start to denounce him as ‘Islamophobic’ in order to try and SILENCE him. It’s coming. Wait for it.
His comment about Daesh and al Qaeda’s “ability to attract foreign fighters” provokes the question ‘WHY CAN THEY DO IT?’
The answer is that they are preaching and practicing the authentic jihad doctrine.
Matthieu Baudin says
Well then Mr Kerry, pack your bags and get on a plane to Damascus to meet with your Russian Counterpart to nut out a new strategy to contain ISIS and bolster secular governance in Syria. There is no lasting shame in a failed foreign policy so long as you can learn from it and move on into greener pastures.
Jack Holan says
Kerry is truly an ignoramus or a hack or both!
Alarmed Pig Farmer says
Don’t forget the part about where he is a lying war coward forgerer. That counts too.
No Fear says
Contrast Kerry’s statement with Australia’s Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull who said that:
“Daesh is not Hitler’s Germany, Tojo’s Japan or Stalin’s Russia.”
“Its leaders dream that they, like the Arab armies of the seventh and eighth century, will sweep across Middle East into Europe itself … We should be careful not to say or do things which can be seen to add credibility to these delusions.”
Baucent says
Do half the commentators who drop “existential” into their conversation even know what it means?
Let’s get something straight, Kerry’s comment is to put new military chief General Dunford in his place. He strayed from the Obama taking points by fingering Russia as the number one threat to the US and ISIS at No.4 behind Iran and North Korea.
Now Dunford is wrong. Russia is not plotting the downfall of the “Great Satan”, but plenty of other players, Iran and ISIS and other Jihadi groups are.
In fact you won’t see many people shouting “Death to America” and burning American flags in Moscow, (but plenty do it in Tehran).
Actually the West has more in common with Russia than areas of disagreement and more effort needs to be made to defuse the tension with Russia, as when it feels isolated it tends to snuggle up to all Americas enemies including several Islamic states.
But it is difficult to see how “Islamic State” is now the biggest threat to the “ongoing existance” of the United States. With 30,000 lightly armed irregular forces. They have no nuclear weapons or means of delivering them even if they had. So, that leaves Iran, a country with the anti US/West ideology, and are not far from having the weapons and capability to mount a nuclear strike on US soil. But Kerry won’t admit that or the reason why he is sitting at a table with the Iranians starts looking like madness.
ConofChi says
King Dim the Almighty
duh_swami says
When the elite tell the truth, it is an accident…
John Thomas says
What happened to global warming? I thought that was the greatest threat to the world/humankind, etc., etc.? Don’t tell me it’s been rumbled, exposed, found out? No, surely not!
Joseph says
The Islamic state is behind the evil plot to jihad the temperature of Earth’s atmosphere by a few degrees thereby killing off all unbelievers and themselves. They will all go to paradise while we will go to hell.
So you see John by stopping ISIS we will solve the global warming issue. Oh I forgot, today is an odd day(13th) so it is climate change.
Davegreybeard says
The greatest existential threat to America is Barack Obama, the Democrat Party and those who think like them.
Khagaraj Sommu says
John Kerry is fluent in speaking from both sides of his mouth.Not long ago at a meeting with Muslims at the State Department he declared with a straight face that Islamic terrorism was due to ,among other things,climate change !