The Biden administration’s security officials rarely pass up an opportunity to disabuse the press of the notion that you can wage a successful military campaign against an idea.
“What we have learned through our own experiences, that military and other means you can absolutely have a significant impact on terrorist groups ability to resource itself, to train fighters, to recruit fighters, to plan to execute attacks,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters last November. “It doesn’t mean that the ideology withers away and die [sic].” Those sentiments were recently echoed by State Department spokesman Matthew Miller. “You can defeat a terrorist group on the battlefield, but ultimately you have to beat that idea with a better idea,” he said. It is for that reason that the U.S. supports Israel in its objective of “defeating Hamas” on the battlefield, but a lasting peace in the region will only be achieved through a “broader political resolution that will address the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people.”
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