Dem Congresswoman: Obama 'Not Recognizing That Islamic Extremism Is the Enemy'

A Democratic congresswoman says the administration needs to be accurate about its descriptions of terrorists in order to properly fight terrorism.

“It’s not just about words, it’s not about semantics, it’s really about having a real true understanding of who our enemy is and how important that is, that we have to understand what their motivation is and what their ideology is, this radical Islamic ideology that’s fueling them,” Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) told Fox.

“Just a couple of days ago, Secretary Kerry said in a speech that ISIS and al-Qaeda are engaging in, quote, ‘criminal conduct rooted in alienation, poverty, thrill seeking and other factors.’ Now if we really look at what he’s saying and if that’s really the cause, then the solution would be to give them a trophy, give them a hug, give them a good paying job, $10,000, and a skateboard so they can go and get their thrills and say, OK, great, they’re going to be happy and they won’t be fighting anymore,” she continued.

“That’s not the case. Unfortunately, we have people who are living in poverty all around the world, people who have this same feeling of alienation from their government, but they’re not terrorists. So we’ve got to look at what their ideology is and how that’s fueling these tragic attacks that keep occurring.”

Gabbard, the first Hindu member of Congress, is a captain in the Hawaii Army National Guard and Iraq combat veteran. She is also a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee.

Her perspective, she said, “comes from experiencing not only the culture myself, personally, but also seeing the incredibly high cost of wars.”

“Seeing friends of mine who did not make it home, people who I served with in Iraq, and unfortunately, the countless other lives who sacrificed and paid that ultimate price,” she said.

Obama, Gabbard said, “really is not recognizing that Islamic extremism is the enemy.”

“We can see that through their actions, through the decisions that this administration has made. And Libya is a perfect example, where if you don’t know who your enemy is, you end up going to war with people who are not your enemy. In Libya, we had a situation where Gadhafi was taken out. We attacked Libya, and we look now rather than eliminating our enemy, these Islamic extremists, they’re stronger there now than they were before. And there are other examples. We look at the proposed attacks on Syria that occurred just over a year ago. Again, we’re dealing with a situation where this is not our enemy, this is not the people who are threatening the American people,” she said.

“It’s a real problem because of a very simple reason actually. That is something I learned as military 101, but something that’s easy for everyone to understand, and that is, if you are at war, which we are, you have to know who your enemy is in order to defeat them. You’ve got to recognize what’s fueling them, what’s motivating them, what are their strategies and tactics that they’re using in order to be able to defeat them and prevent them from attacking the American people.”