Krauthammer’s Take: To Stop the Jihad Narrative, ‘Everything Hinges on What Happens on the Ground’

https://youtube.com/watch?v=iWvn37m6m-E

Discussing White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest’s comment that fighting ISIS is “just a war of narratives,” Charles Krauthammer pointed to defeating ISIS on the ground as the best way to oppose the narrative of violent jihad:

I think he response you heard from a presidential spokesman on narrative was clearly a mistake and something that can be easily exploited by the other side — and should be — because it reflects the president’s idea which he has had since the beginning of his terms, which is that diplomacy, soft power, and all this, is what international relations is all about, and this is subset of that.

In other words, the war on terror is a war of narratives, it’s a war of ideas, hearts, and minds. Yes — however, hearts and minds are swayed by what is going on on the ground. It’s what bin Laden talked about when he said people will go for the strong horse. The fact that there is less recruitment to ISIS today is a reflection of the fact that it is losing on the ground slowly – very gradually. Nonetheless, if you are going to give your life to the jihad, you’re not going to do it if you think the jihad is not going to succeed, and that I think is what this administration simply never understands. Everything is soft, everything is ideological, and nothing matters on the ground.

Everything hinges on what happens on the ground.