In light of the State Dept's recent assertion that economics is what attracts Muslims to join the savage Islamic State, consider the following excerpt from Understanding Terror Networks, by Marc Sageman, a former CIA officer who worked closely with jihadi groups in Afghanistan (emphasis mine):

There was a definite shift in degree of devotion to Islam in adulthood by the mujahedin [jihadis], preceding their recruitment into the jihad. This is not surprising givien the fact that the global Salafi jihad is a Muslim revivialist organization. Of the 155 mujahedin on whom I could find relevant information, all but one were considerably more devout right before joining the jihad than they had been as children. More than 99 percent were very religious at that time, often donning Afghan, Pakistani, or traditional Arabic garb and growing beards...

"Devotion to Islam" is what causes Muslims to join the Islamic State — not "a lack of opportunity for jobs," in the words of State Dept. spokesperson Marie Harf.

Recent assertions by State Dept. spokesperson Marie Harf expose how the Obama administration continues to operate under wildly false — if not ludicrous — premises in its approach to combating the Islamic State.

During an interview with Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s Hardball, Harf said:

We’re killing a lot of them, and we’re going to keep killing more of them. So are the Egyptians, so are the Jordanians – they’re in this fight with us. But we cannot win this war by killing them. We cannot kill our way out of this war. We need in the medium to longer term to go after the root causes that leads people to join these groups, whether it’s a lack of opportunity for jobs, whether…

Here Mathews cut her off, arguing that the world will always have its poor, etc.

First, note how much of what Harf said is accurate:

We’re killing a lot of them, and we’re going to keep killing more of them... But we cannot win this war by killing them. We cannot kill our way out of this war.

All good and true. As I have often argued using the Hercules/Hydra myth as analogy, while killing individual jihadis is good, it is not much of a solution, since, for every one that is killed, several more take his place. Harf seems to agree and correctly adds:

We need in the medium to longer term to go after the root causes that leads people to join these groups...

Absolutely true: the root causes must be combated. And what is the first "root cause" that comes to the mind of Harf, whose words are reflective of the Obama administration? "Lack of opportunity for jobs."

In other words, the Obama administration is operating under the patently false belief that Muslims are joining the Islamic State — and beheading, immolating, crucifying, enslaving, and raping "infidels" — because they are economically impoverished.

This is preposterous and goes against every ounce of common sense. If the "root causes" have nothing to do with Islam, then one wonders why there is no "Christian State" that entices poor Christians — of which there are billions — to join so they can decapitate, burn, rape, and enslave non-Christians? Or does Harf think that only Muslims are lacking "job opportunities"?

Where Muslims are strong, they coerce non-Muslim "infidels" to do their bidding; where they are weak, they plead and play victim in order for non-Muslims to do their bidding.

All throughout the Islamic world — and not just under the Islamic State — non-Muslim religious freedom and freedom of speech are openly banned, from building churches and distributing Bibles to criticizing any aspects of Islam or its founder. Why? Because Muslims are on their own turf and free to force "infidels" to live according to their rules.

In America, Muslim minorities plead that the facts about Islam remain unknown.

In all cases, it is coercion and a ban on freedom — whether freedom of worship, freedom of speech, or, in America, freedom of knowledge and open debate of Islam.

And the Obama administration plays along:

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said on Sunday that President Obama’s decision not to say the actions of the Islamic State is a form of “radical Islam” is at the behest of the Muslim community. “The thing I hear from leaders in the Muslim community in this country is ISIL is attempting to hijack my religion,” Johnson told “Fox News Sunday,” referring to the terror group also known as Islamic State, or ISIS. Johnson said the leaders argue their religion is about peace and brotherhood and “resent” that Islamic State is “attempting to hijack that from us.” Obama is facing sharp criticism, even from within his own party, for instead using the term “violent extremism” to describe the actions of ISIS and other terror groups that are based on a form of Islam. “If we don’t identify our enemies, we cannot defeat them,” Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, told Fox News on Wednesday. “Unless you accurately identify who your enemy is, then you can’t come up with an effective strategy, a winning strategy to defeat that enemy.”

Indeed. And I discussed all that in this 2011 article "Obama Administration Bans Knowledge of Islam." As for Sun Tzu's famous dictum paraphrased above — "know your enemy" — I discussed that in the context of U.S. intelligence failures in this 2008 article titled "Studying the Islamic Way of War."