Cspan. This labor day weekend, the president used his weekly address to talk about his administrations efforts to raise the minimum wage. Response went over jobs into the economy. Hi, everybody. Whether youre firing up the grill, fired up for some college football, or filling up the car for one last summer roadtrip happy labor day weekend. We set aside labor day to honor the working men and women of america. And this labor day, weve got more to celebrate. Over the past 53 months, our businesses have added nearly 10 million new jobs. Last month, for the First Time Since 1997, we created more than 200,000 jobs for six straight months. And for the first time in over a decade, Business Leaders worldwide have declared, two years running, that the number one place to invest isnt china its america. So there are reasons to be optimistic about where were headed. And the decisions we make now will determine whether or not we accelerate this progress, whether economic gains flow to a few at the top, or whether a growing economy fuels rising incomes and a thriving middle class. Think about it this labor day. The things we often take for granted, Social Security and medicare, Workplace Safety laws, and the right to organize for better pay and benefits, even weekends we didnt always have these things. Workers and the unions who get their back had to fight for them. And those fights built a stronger middle class. To build a stronger middle class in todays changing economy, weve got to keep fighting. Weve got to fight for the right to Affordable Health insurance for everybody. The right to fair pay, family leave, and workplace flexibility. The right to a fair living wage. Let me focus on that last one for a minute. In america, no one who works fulltime should ever have to raise a family in poverty. A hard days work deserves a fair days pay. And raising the minimum wage would be one of the best ways to give a boost to working families. It would help around 28 million americans from all walks of life pay the bills, provide for their kids, and spend that money at local businesses. And that grows the economy for everyone. The bottom line is, america deserves a raise. But until weve got a congress that cares about raising working folks wages, its up to the rest of us to make it happen. And in the year and a half since i first asked congress to raise the minimum wage, americans of all walks of life are doing just that. 13 states and d. C. Have done their part by raising their minimum wages. Four more states have minimum wage initiatives on the ballot this november. And the states where the minimum wage has gone up this year have experienced higher job growth than the states that havent. Business leaders at Companies Like the gap are doing their part. Theyre raising base wages for tens of thousands of workers because they know its good for business. Mayors across the country are doing their part. Mayor emanuel in chicago and mayor garcetti in l. A. Are working to lift their cities wages over time to at least 13 an hour. Ive tried to do my part by requiring companies that get contracts with the federal government to pay their workers a fair wage of 10. 10 an hour. And earlier this month, the president of Kentucky State University set a great example by giving himself a 90,000 pay cut, so that he could give raises to his lowestpaid employees. His sacrifice will give more of his workers and their families a little extra money to help make ends meet. Thats how america built the greatest middle class the world has ever known. Not by making sure a fortunate few at the top are doing well, but by making sure that everyone whos willing to work hard and play by the rules can get ahead. Thats the bedrock this country is built on. Hard work. Responsibility. Sacrifice. And looking out for one another as one united american family. Lets keep that in mind this labor day and every day. Have a great weekend, everybody. Hello, im dr. Larry bucshon, proudly serving indianas eighth congressional district. Im honored to be speaking with you from the heartland of america on this weekend when we tip our hat to the working man and woman. Americas workers make our country go, so our goal should be to make our economy work for them. But traveling around indiana this week, going from job fairs to listening sessions to Small Businesses, it was easy to see how our workers are still hurting. Were seeing some jobs come back, but too many of our fellow americans are stuck in parttime work or have stopped looking altogether. And between wages staying flat, and costs on everything from food to Health Care Going up, families are being squeezed at every turn. Here in indiana, and in many states throughout the union, we rely on coal to power our homes and provide goodpaying middle class jobs like the one my family relied on when i was a kid. My dad spent 35 years as a umwa coal miner in my hometown of kincaid, illinois. He was proud of the work he did everyday and rightly so. The coal mine helped put food on our table and helped me pursue an education and realize the american dream. Unfortunately, the Current Administration is waging a war on this reliable, affordable source of energy and the countless jobs it supports. This is one example of many where the policies coming from washington, d. C. , just dont make sense. As a physician, i took an oath to do no harm. While this administrations policies continue to harm our nations economy and families struggling to make ends meet, republicans are Offering Solutions americas workers can count on. Our solutions will address the sluggish job market and grow our economy over the long run. First, we need to get people back into steady, goodpaying jobs. One thing weve already done is fix our job Training System to make it easier for workers to find the skills they need to get ahead. This was a bipartisan, commonsense compromise with our colleagues in the senate. Weve also offered proposals to jumpstart Small Business investment and rein in the red tape factory that makes it harder for employers to hire and expand. All told, we have more than 40 good jobs bills awaiting action in the democraticrun United States senate. Lowering costs is another area that demands action. Several of the bipartisan jobs bills were asking Senate Democrats to act on would help make energy less expensive for families and Small Businesses, like the manufacturers that help support the hoosier economy. And we need to implement Real Health Care reform that lets patients choose the plans they want at a price they can afford. And third, we need to restore real opportunities for all americans. Thats why weve sent the Senate Solutions to make education more affordable and accessible for middleclass families. And were ready to fix our tax code to make it simpler and fairer for everyone. These three things getting people back to work, lowering costs at home, and restoring opportunity will continue to be our focus in the weeks ahead. We call them American Solutions because they put the American People first. Which is exactly what were asking of president obama and Senate Democrats as we celebrate our nations workforce. Put aside politics and do what americans do every day, and thats get to work. Thanks for listening. God bless you and god bless the United States of america. This labor day, on the cspan networks, on cspan a summit on bullying at schools. 8 00, a debate on evolution. Tv, apan twos book congressman talks about his life and hisim crow south leadership position in the house of representatives. Then a book about clare booth luce. P. M. , the hidden world of High Frequency stock changing. On cspan3, at 7 15 p. M. , american artifacts looks at declassified documents in the gulf of tonkin that led to the vietnam war. P. M. , president hardings newlyreleased love letters. And the life of milton friedman. Atd the Television Schedule seaspan. Org. Us at the number on screen. Totwin or use the c one three. Join the conversation, like us on facebook, or follow us on twitter. The center for islam and discussion ona the islamic military group isis. The u. S. Response. This is just over one hour and a half. Work killed in algeria in the 1990s. That was one of the main reasons why we decided to establish cfid at the end of the 1990s to try democracy the idea of and resolving political conflicts through peaceful means through elections and dialogue and consensus building rather than through violence. Crisiswe have a similar in iraq, in syria, certainly in egypt where we had a military coup that removed him elected president , the first ever elected president in egypt was removed a year ago by the military. A similar crisis is looming in libya where we have a lot of violence and conflicts in libya. The only solution and the only alternative to violence is democracy. That is our main message. Which is what we have been working on for the last 15 years since 1999. It is the only alternative to and that and extremism is dialogue and peaceful coexistence, consensus building and the art of the possible or the art of negotiating until a solution can be found. Invited some of the main experts on this topic in the region to inform us and enlighten us about what is going on and what is the main reason for the rise of isis and extremism in general. Promotebest ways to peace and dialogue and coexistence. With that, i would like to turn it over to dr. Bill lawrence who will moderate this panel. Thank you very much and welcome and hope you have a good of hours or a couple with us today, thank you. [applause] my name is william lawrence. I am the director for csid. Couple of administrative matters first i would like to remind everyone that this is being live stream than broadcast on cspan and we would like everyone to speak into a microphone. If you are talking, talking to a microphone so everyone can hear you. We will be accepting questions for the q7a on twitter. Npc is the hastag. Clear. Ic for today is we have assembled one of the best panels that i can imagine on this topic, not specifically or necessarily experts on isis, iraq, and syria but on the regional phenomenon that are creating the regional crisis we are living in today. Im going to mention that isis has many names. We have chosen isis because it is the one used in the media these days. Shem, theg syria or greater syria. Sometimes it is called isl. It calls itself the Islamic State that many dont want to give it. We settled on isis today. It is one phenomenon we are talking about and has over 40 nationalities and has taken over a big swath of territory in iraq and syria. The full bios of our speakers are available online. I will only summarize certain aspects. John esposito is one of the leading voices on islam and understanding islam and the world. Is a University Professor at georgetown, the founding director of the center for muslimchristian understanding and the former head of the middle east studies association and many other organizations. He has a list 45 hooks, translated into 37 languages including weager. Ahamid is a fellow at the Brookings Institution is a former Research Person and has been in the Research Field and will help us with that perspective. He has a new book out entitled temptations of power. This book is one of the reasons we invited him. If you follow him on twitter, you quickly realize that his twitter account is one of the few dozen most important in the region for understanding what is going on. From last night, there are several solutions for fixing syria. Error quite a stream they are and its good to follow him. Michelle dunn is a senior associate at the carnegie endowment. She is the founding director of the Hariri Center and a former specialist on middle east affairs at the u. S. State department and the white house. A recent article on the politics of alienation in egypt was the inspiration for the title of this conference. She regularly writes insightful shees on the region should and she has written two in particular that are quite influential. Ohanlon is a serious is a senior fellow with 21st security and intelligence and director of research for the foreignpolicy program at the Brookings Institution. At princetoning university has been an adjunct professor at johns hopkins. His most recent book cowritten with James Steinberg is strategic reassurance. He just flew in from beijing yesterday. He has a previous recent book on obamas Foreign Policy and has made over 3000 appearances on radio and tv since 9 11. You have seen them before even if you dont remember. With that, i will turn the floor over to Professor John esposito and thank you for coming today. [applause] thank you very much. I am delighted to be here. I would note that the Chinese Government approved the chinese translation of the book in question but the weegers did the chance laois and death did the translation and the chinese never approved it. I will be going back there next month to look into it. Are three georgetown people on the panel and if i can arrange for an honorary doctorate from michael ohanlon, we can make a sweep. [laughter] challenges in addressing word toi use the feeding some time but i dont think we will see that for a while containing and ultimately defeating isis will require short and longterm sponsors. I will probably talking about the shortterm but i will eventually talk about the longterm. People of in talking about that for the last 25 years. For a bright of reasons, they dont get addressed. Alassad on aar military response to democratization, the arab spring. With the slaughter of Syrian Opposition groups, heightened sectarian divisions. As well as christian. Reluctancety of the tothe u. S. And the eu respond early on with significant assistance to the moderate Syrian Opposition forces and the oppositions failure to unite to work effectively together enhance the ability of foreign jihadist. In iraq, l maliki installing the shia government increased an already polarized situation and sectarian violence that would nnislt in an alienated su welcoming isis. Groups that fight proxy wars in syria against us one would also talk refer to the overthrow of the democratically elected government in egypt. This made the situation much worse. At the same time, the failure early on in syria of the u. S. And the eu to become significantly engaged and work closely with regional allies like turkey and saudi arabia assaddr to support anti forces had a ripple effect. In 2011, it did the same in iraq. What about isis islamic pedigree . Ake elk china, isis offers warped and distorted ideology or religious rationale to justify, recruit, legitimate and motivate many of the fighters. Much of what they do violates islamic law but thats typical or what terrorists do. Terrorists will say the usual laws are fine but these are unusual times. During the argument Bush Administration with regard to the war on global terrorism and discussions about whether or not just war or whether or not regulations that have to do with torture or how we approach waterboarding one needs to think about the fact that the old laws were made for different time in those times change. Thats the way i in which terrorist groups spin and get to do on the best acts of terrorism and slaughter civilians, killing of innocent muslims and christians. There are similarities between isis and other groups, there are also distinct differences. Isis seeks to create a state to occupy and control an area not just to dream of her speak up to create and impose their version of a pahte with itscali first version of law and order. They are more ruthless and driving out and suppressing and executing shia and kurds. Religious leaders and others who disagree with them as well as minorities, christians and and imposing their extraordinarily violent brand of islam. They also force populations to pledge their allegiance. Drivergion the primary of the socalled islamic calipharte and the primary drivr with the domestic populations that come from europe or the u. S. Or even other countries to fight with isis . Since this is going to be on cspan, i will thank you for the bombay sapphire. [laughter] religion is an important factor, and plays a role to legitimate, recruit and motivate, studies of most jihadist and movements like isis show that the primary drivers are to be found elsewhere. Past, this hast remained true to the europeans and americans who joined isis. Studies by the European Network of experts on violent as well as those by terrorism experts show that, in most cases, religion is not the primary source but rather a long list of grievances. These are grievances that are seeing being seen across society even by those who may not be radicalized but will be and site american. Antiamerican. The gopher grievances that are not specific and peculiar to just a segment of the population were to terrorists themselves. The drivers include moral outrage, disaffection, peer pressure, search for new identity, meaning, purpose, and belonging. These drivers come out of studies from five European Countries as well as some studies done on the u. S. For many, its the experience and deception of living in a Hostile Society and seeing a hostile world. You can look at a countries and say what other governments like . . Also what role does the u. S. And the eu both actively play in support or not choosing to put pressure on some of its issues ofian allies . Disenfranchisement, heightened political consciousness, antiimperialism and social justice in the notion of emancipation, many see countries is occupied either by foreigners were occupied by authoritarian regimes. They hold back the majority of people in the country. In a recent having them post blogs they cited a briefing report going back to 2000 a which noted that far from being religious zealots, large number of those involved in terrorism did not track this their faith regularly and many lack religious literacy and could be regarded as religious novices. Analysts concluded that a wellestablished identity actually protecting violent radicalization. If you look at data in the u. S. Come youll see this for a significant number of americans as aegard Islam Muslims prone to violence and have an even worse opinion of the religion of islam which they see as being the primary motivator or source for that easy acceptance of violence. When no some of the islam of public group like act make that kind of statement. To the extent that somebody is a pious muslim, they may not be a terrorist now, but they will be more susceptible are more prone to that attraction. I can member being at a for ang, closed briefing senior military and there was somebody who was born and raised in the region, in turkey and commented that even secular who have no use for religion, when you mention caliphate, it vibrates in their historical genes or chest which is interesting. You can tie that into the appeal to calpijhqate but it is a ludicrous statement. From 2000 82014, there is the to jihadist and wannabes. Before they set out from birmingham to fight syria, they ordered two books on amazon. What books do you think they would have gotten . Was islam for dummies and the carron for charo thehe koran for dummies. [laughter] many of these terrorist do not have education for islam and the primary drive drivers of his of her grievances. How about the question of beheadings . We know a beheading has been used to store could buy many. Grant fuller estimated that if you look at states, postrevolutionary france beheaded some 40,000 people. We know beheading is used in certain countries even today. We also know beheading has been used to terrorize. We know that mexican cartels e used it as well as because of the nature of it and putting the head on us like or something, that is been seen as an act that is particularly will terrorize people. That has been there but when you put outvideos that were by isis between 2000 62013, while you have citations of the what you see more predominately are basically grievances being articulated as the main reason for killing civilians, grievances against individuals and groups like iraqi soldiers and police and government workers who are seen as part of. He problem flies in the face of islamic law. Given the current momentum of isis and intentions to expand, it may well attempt to increase its activity and it is in places like northwest syria, southern air whack southern iraq and lebanon. I was talking to some people from indonesia. They are very concerned about isis and their ideology but its presence and recruitment in indonesia. Isis will be tested on its ability to hold areas now under its control while attempting to also expand its territory. At the end of the day, the peoples of the region, obviously like syria, iraq lebanon and the gulf states have the primary challenge and responsibility to deal with what are primarily their problems. However, a substantial International Commitment and involvement by the u. S. In concert with allies is also needed. As president obama considers new strikes, the white house has begun a Diplomatic Campaign to enlist allies and neighbors in the region to increase the oppositionserious rather late but in any case in some cases to provide support to military operations. Tothe long run, if we wish break the cycle of global terrorism whether it is isis or other movements in the future, notes and aler piece on avenging james foley the conditions and basic and enduring grievances in islam countries that jihadist movements have exploited must be addressed. Foreign boats on the ground a dictator supported by the was out of convenience, failure to end a halfcentury of Israeli Occupation of palestinian lands, the treatment of palestinians as a paradigm for treatment of other muslims, the u. S. Employment of the region as an eternal cockpit for proxy wars. Thats a great phrase. You have the gulf states are some of them involved in supporting proxy wars and the characterization of the u. S. Recent events continue the trajectory of u. S. And eu failure to take stronger principle stand. In egypt on that military coup, massive violation of human rights with slaughter of civilians and the restoration of authoritarian rule. And the recognition and calling it a democracy in a country well on the road to democracy. At the same time, the issue of the asymmetric war in gaza and not speaking out and condemning it in the way it needed to be can dance. Nasa saying that we are said to his action but of gazanve slaughter civilians compared to the israeli side and the attempt to not only wipe out all of those people but destroying the infrastructure of the country violates International Law and human rights. Rather you have a situation where in public media, we are told that Benjamin Netanyahu approaches are administration in avoidingting him having to go to international courts. Of those things create conditions that will remain very strong in the future. Massive killing of civilians and deliver destruction of the gazan infrastructure alienates significant sectors of muslim democrats. That does not mean they will turn to violence but at the same time, it contributes to the radicalization and recruitment of disaffected youth. Thank you. [applause] hello, everyone. Thank you, hill and thank you to csid for having me. This is a great organization. A were talking about democracy in the world before it was cool. They have done some incredible work in tunisia since the arabs spring began. In a differentf way than i intended area of this has been alderney for a little rise of vices and its severed she, this kind of response that isis has nothing to do with islam and islam is a peaceful religion. Islamichat the peaceful term is beginning to grate on me a little bit. Yes, the majority of muslims do not share, the vast majority, dont share isiss ideology. At the end of the day, islam does not exist as god intended because we dont have access to that. We can only interpret. Ultimately, islam is a construct. Constructs are not peaceful or violent. They are what muslims will them to be. The fact of the matter is that even though they are a minority, there are muslims who do believe this is the correct interpretation of islam. The reason i bring this up as i feel like when we bring up the islamist piece narrative, we are trying to say that this is inexplicable and evil and these are friends terrorists and i feel that leads us to underestimate the nature of the threat we are facing. I think we have to take isis very seriously. This was something we saw in john kerrys statements recently. Of course isis is evil but he said isis inexplicable he is evil. We have to try to understand the origins of isis. It is not appear. It came out a particular context and was not inevitable. The obamai think Administration Official suggested nothing we could have done to stop this. Only ridiculous but predicted. We have these conversations in early 2012. I remember the people who were meeting with jane senior Administration Officials telling them explicitly the longer we wait to guide we dont do more in syria now, it will conduit does. The extremists are going to gain ground is deservedly ices will will gain the ground. What is unique about isis . They are a Fascinating Group because, unlike al qaeda central and other or runners, they take. T around pretty seriously they dispense justice to sharia courts and take care of water and electricity and distribute funds to help the poor but also the kind of religious morality piece which goes around and make sure that women are covered and other things like that. It is brutal. They are vicious. But they actually hold territory and they run territory. In many ways, they are more effective than other rebel groups in running the territories they control. This is especially the case when you have a total vacuum. You have various leslie were better fighting with each other over the control of local government, there is a fascinating piece in the where thereadology were talking about the experience of ices rule in a city in syria. They go into detail about how the residents of this city view isis rules and many of them may they see it as preferable to the alternative cicely because isis has been able to restore law and order and crime has gone down and hangs actually run. Follow the very harsh rules and do not oppose them, there might actually be a better situation than the alternative. In many parts of syria that is chaos. To understand the governance aspects and is your traditional terrorist group. Have been abley to retain some local support in the territory they control. Now they control does in the territories wiegand we estimate about 400 million thats remarkable. Its a piece of territory as large as the u. K. With 4 million people. There the other thing is, there are not a lot of models of islamic governance, and the bar is quite low, too. We have had the taliban, sudan, so on and so forth, but i think what isis has been able to do in a short amount of time is present in a different model of islamic governance, when the other models have failed. I will get into that when we talk about mainstream political islam and their relative failure or eclipse of the Muslim Brotherhood. Let me say one more thing about the kind of governance here, and again this was in that jihadology piece. Isis is more brutal than pretty much anyone else in the region, but less arbitrary. So it is more predictable. When we are trying to understand why authoritarianism is so alienating and can push people toward the isis model for thesee, you did, syria, countries are less brutal and less repressive but you never know where the red lines are. The secret police can come to your door unannounced at don. That is, in some ways, the most terrifying thing about an autocracy, not the oppression but the fear and the uncertain tea. In this article, the point was made, there is something consistent about isis rule, that they are not arbitrary, so citizens know what to expect, which is a very important point. All of this leads me to say that this is actually what makes isis so frightening and so scary and not easily defeated. That is why, i think, we have to complicate this simplistic narrative of terrorism and evil. If we want to confront the enemy, we have to understand what they are offering. I am happy that my colleague, professor esposito, mentioned egypt. His is one of the reasons why i was very concerned about the coup in egypt last year. We cannot pretend that we did not know this was coming, that we would not know the effects, but the coup in egypt, for all their faults no one has to like the Muslim Brotherhood, but they were democratically elected. They were able to say and this is what they do say that the Islamic State is not possible through democracy. Not possible through elections. It is only possible through the force of arms. That is their narrative. That is a more compelling narrative now because of what happened in places like egypt and because of what is happening now in places like libya. There is essentially a war being waged against mainstream political islam. Again, it is not good or moderate necessarily, but is an alternative to what extremist. Roups like isis offer i think in that sense one of the great failures of the arab spring, when we look back and do a postmortem, yes, Islamist Groups failed. The Muslim Brotherhood was unprepared for governance, did not govern inclusively, the list goes on. But the greater failure of the arab spring was the failure of the existing regional order, of existing state systems to accommodate islamist participation in the democratic process. Islamists were willing to test it out, but really, nowhere in the region have they been allowed to fully govern in the normal democratic sense. Exception. A partial to be anoing interesting test. If we look at it regionally, that is the basic trend we are talking about. Believe in a democratic process were not given a real opportunity not to govern even, but to be a part of the political process. That is something that i discussed at length in my book, so i will not go into too much detail there. But that contrast between the mainstream islamists and extremist islamists is very important. As i close here, i want to make a couple of final points and then a word about u. S. Policy. I think this is a very important point that professor esposito just raised. There is something about the notion of a caliphate, something about the notion of an Islamic State that has a kind of residents. I do not know to what extent people grasp this. Even for someone like me who grew up in an american muslim community, even i would absorb this growing up, this sense that we have been the greatest civilization the world had ever seen, and then we encountered this percent of his fall from grace. I use fall from grace for a reason. It is almost as if god had forsaken us. This is something you hear. Imbued inuch political discourse in the middle east and among muslims more generally. Even with people who are not religious or practicing or whatever else. So this sense of humiliation, this cap of what muslims believe they should be, and what they actually are, that is so much at the root of the conflict that we are seeing. The fact that they are blocked from expressing their aspirations or grievances through the normal political process. So the Islamic State, isis, were smart enough marketing because they used the term. State, is islamic compelling. Caliphate, compelling. Al qaeda was not serious about that david they would talk about it in theory but was not serious in practice. The Muslim Brotherhood talks about Islamic State all the time, but again, it was not seriously going to happen anytime soon. In a moree first time coherent and compelling way, there is something called the Islamic State. S kind of president is dent is dangerous. We have seen copycats in nigeria. Wherever there is a political vacuum and were civil conflict becomes important, where you do not have governance, state authority, and you have that vacuum, the instant a lot of extremists or people who are even less extreme will think, maybe we can start our own Islamic State in this territory. That mental block has been removed. On u. S. Policy, what can we do . ,f we take it seriously understand the origins of isis rise, understand the origin of the syrian war and what we fail to do, what can we do now . Worried we are moving into this narrow counterterrorism approach and we do not want to look more broadly that the context. The fact that john kerry has said eggs like isis will be crushed. Obama has called them to cancer. Desire to defeat isis, but there is a mismatch between means and end. If it is our goal to defeat isis, what does this administration offers does not come close. Me that wearkable to are talking about airstrikes and there is some talk about boosting the moderate rebels, but it does not sound serious so far. Announced time and again over the past two years, we will do more to support the mainstream rebels. It does not happen in a serious way. Perhaps this could be obamas moment where he realizes if he does not change in a fundamental way, his legacy is not looking good. I hope this could be one of those moments where something clicks and you realize something serious has to be taken on here. I am skeptical as i think this instinctually, intellectually sees the middle east in a different way than i do. So im not optimistic in that regard. Kind of close here, what about our allies . We want to work with them to build this coalition against isis. That twoy instructive of our closest allies, egypt and the uae tom a have been launching airstrikes not in syria or iraq or isis, but in libya. That tells you about priorities. Maybe it is obvious, maybe it is not, but many of these countries see mainstream political islam, whether you want to call the moderate or not groups like the Muslim Brotherhood as being more of a fundamental threat than groups like isis, and they have acted accordingly. This all means, assuming the Obama Administration does not do do, i think they dshould think we have to accept the Islamic State will be with us for the foreseeable future. I do not know how long. And will be more entrenched in the territory it holds. I dont know what the after affects are going to be. Al qaeda, it is often said, was originally born in the prisons andhe 1950s and 1960s nobody would have dreamed then that those events would reverberate for the coming decades. Now,ry that isis looks bad but there are things that we cannot even imagine that might happen in the future because of and because we are not able or willing to do enough to stop them. Thank you. [applause] good afternoon and thank you to csid for inviting me to be part of the panel. There was a New York Times editorial today discussing whether the United States should strike isis in syria. The editorial decrying the lack of a comprehensive u. S. Strategy iraq, military action alone is not enough to defeat the extremists who gain followers by exploiting repression against the sunnis. So i think this is part of what we are here to discuss and im happy that shadi opened up this question. What is the political and diplomatic strategy that would have to accompany any military action against extremists in iraq and syria, if it should happen . To go even deeper into this question about working with our allies. It is the first thing that comes up, is there in the article. We have to work with our allies and so forth. Of course its essential, but we have a really big problem. ,ur allies are divided especially when it comes to the political strategy. Many of them are leading us in a direction that i think is likely to be disastrous. As you know, we have these two cant. This is apart from the longrunning saudiiranian leadership thing. Uae,ve saudi arabia, the egypt, and a few others in one group that have proposed a certain political strategy, which is lumping many islamist into the same category, the category of terrorists, and barring them from politics, media, civil society. There are a lot of things happening. Shadi referred to things happening in egypt. On a smaller scale, in a number of the other countries that i mentioned. This is being applied particularly to the Muslim Brotherhood because the governments of these countries see the Muslim Brotherhood as the greatest political threat to their continuing control. The gulf countries have taken their own steps internally and have also cheered on as president asisi has carried on countrykdown across the. As many as 40,000 have been imprisoned. To go back to that editorial , it says that isis got to where it is in iraq because it gain followers by exploiting repression against the sunnis. So where do we think repression of islamists, brotherhood other islamists, human rights defenders, journalists, and so forth . Where do we think this is going to go . That is the political strategy that a Certain Group of our allies recommend to us, that we support, or at a minimum, turned a blind eye to. But actually they want our support in the strategy of repressing that section of the population. Where do we think it is going to go . Except to generate more support for the extremists that exist, and it is not only in iraq or syria but they exist in egypt and many of the countries of the region. Also, closing off the avenues that i discussed, of politics, media, civil society, and so , will diverge energy in the direction of radicalization. And beyond that, in many countries, it is probably only a small number of people that would be attracted to join or actively support extremist groups. But i think it is even more important that you could have a large swath of the population that is not going to help the government fight the extremist groups because they have been alienated by the government and by a lot of the collective punishment taking place. There is another camp of u. S. Andes, generally qatar turkey who say political islamists must be allowed full participation. But we need to be honest with ourselves. Even though these two camps are talking about political islam, the Muslim Brotherhood in starkly different ways, when it individualso it, and states in each of these camps are willing to work with islamist, willing to work with dangerous and violent islamists. There is not really a proislamist and antiislamist camp here although it is portrayed that way. If we look to the actions of all of the states, we can see they have been willing to work with one Islamist Group against another and so forth. It is not a principled thing. It is about politics and about maintaining political control. So what does the United States do about this . I think the administration has been doing the correct thing by refusing to be drawn into this regional polarization. I dont think the Obama Administration has fallen into ofs trap at this point supporting one camp of allies against another. I think the u. S. Administration ontoried to refuse to sign repression of political islamists in the name of fighting terrorism. They have been imperfect in that regard, but in general, they have tried to avoid falling into that particular trap. Of course, it is a pity, and its been alluded to, the u. S. And europe did not do more to peaceful,e growth of political expression, the experiments of democratization that started to take place in the last few years. But i want to point out another failure of policy in the last few years, and that has been managing these allies. The fact that this region has been going through these tectonic shifts, massive changes over the last two year that made everyone feel secure and that the u. S. Has been, for our own andons, been pulling back saying we do not want to be the leaders, we do not want to be responsible for solving a problem like syria. Be the ones coming up with a strategy and coordinating everyone. It is the sort of thing that we wouldve done in the past. It would have meant taking international leadership, diplomatic and perhaps even military, assistance, other strategies. We have decided that we did not want to do that. A lot of our allies feeling insecure, going out and taking their own actions. Shadi referred to the recent example, these airstrikes on libya. I do believe there is fault on the part of the United States, that we need to manage these relationships with our gulf allies, turkey, and indeed, israel, in a better and closer way and we need to have strategies because we see that we are really getting into very dangerous situations by withdrawing to the extent we have. I have heard people say recently , that is all great, but right now we have a specific problem with isis. Sake, we areys going to have to work with whoever we have to. Bashar alassad, president alsisi. Those things, like human rights, democracy, those will have to be in the longerterm. We will get back to all of that stuff. What i want to say is i dont think there is any long term. I think things are happening very quickly in this region. Who would have expected isis to, as far as it has, as quickly as it has been really only a few years . The threat that u. S. Partners in the region, that some of our allies with whom we need to work , may actually, by the actions they are taking in their countries, but before they are may beeach other, fueling radicalization and terrorism at a much faster rate than they are fighting it. That is a problem that the United States needs to take on right away. Its a problem for this year and next year im not or the longterm. Not for the longterm. Thanks. [ala
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