Discussion: Kerry Says He Can See ‘Rationale’ Behind Charlie Hebdo, But Not Paris Attacks

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Discussion for article #242949

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Oh oh. That one’s gonna sting.

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  1. Wrong.
  2. Awkwardly phrased, even for you.
  3. Please don’t feed the trolls Mr. Secretary.
  4. If you thought your service in French restaurants was bad before…
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“There’s something different about what happened from Charlie Hebdo, and
I think everybody would feel that,” Kerry said at the U.S. Embassy in
Paris, according to a transcript of his comments. “There was a sort of
particularized focus and perhaps even a legitimacy in terms of — not a
legitimacy, but a rationale that you could attach yourself to somehow
and say, okay, they’re really angry because of this and that.”

(bangs head on desk)

Good fucking Christ, what a completely idiotic thing to say! I’m pretty much speechless. I’d expect this from Carson or one of the others from the clown car, but not our Sec. State!

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Stupid remark. I so wanted to vote for Howard Dean.

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Bunch of commenters bashing what he said, what was wrong about what he said. The Hebdo attacks were a direct response to Hebdo’s cartoon, this is an attack as a response to what specific event? There are many events that people can speculate what it was a response to, but not one in particular. I think Kerry was quite accurate in what he said.

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And that’s why you’re not a part of Obama’s administration. Wait, what? Who said it? --sigh-- Never mind.

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If you think Kerry was making sense, you might want to try posting elsewhere.

That your religious sensibilities were offended does not allow you to commit murder.

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You seem to be confusing saying you understand the rationale with saying it was justified. You yourself just admitted you understood the rationale behind the Hebdo attack (specific offense over depictions of Mohamed).

Nobody, particularly Kerry, is saying it was justified or a legitimate grevience. But even you actually understand the rationale, though like myself and others, you reject the legitimacy of the rationale, especially given the murderious response by the extremists who carried out the attack earlier this year.

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I said no such thing. The Islamists commit murder in the name of their religion. There is no justifying or rationalizing that. Period.

Again, Kerry said something stupid.

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Fox Headline in 3, 2, 1…

"Kerry says Charlie Hebdo attacks “legitimate!”

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I can see a rationale: the “good” christian tea baggers, They could return to the 'christain values" of, say, the 17th century. Look back to what those “good christians” did in France. How the Catholics murdered whole towns of non-catholics. Yes, history does repeat…

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You didn’t respond to my question, want to try again?

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Shorter Kerry: “I can kind of get the Charlie Hebdo thing, but this new thing just blows me away. What do they even want?”

I think this is his diplomat’s reflex for trying to understand the other side’s position. Unlike Charlie Hebdo, the latest attacks seem to have no concrete demands at all, so he can’t get his head around it. (Although they do — France must end its intervention in Syria, convert en masse to Islam and submit to the caliphate.)

You’d think that by now in his public career, he would understand that such nuanced speculation should be done away from an open mic. He could have said, “This goes far beyond what we’ve seen before, it looks like terror for terror’s sake” and left it at that.

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That your religious sensibilities were offended does not allow you to commit murder.

Kerry didn’t say that their being offended allows them to commit murder. They can be offended, he understands that and he understands why they may direct their anger at the Hebdo organization, I understand that too, there’s a direct connection. But what connection was there with the events in Paris, what specific event led to those specific targets? That’s what Kerry is getting at, there’s an easy to follow and very simple path to the Hebdo killings, the Paris events are far more complicated and can’t be simplified down to a simple sentence like you just failed at doing.

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You didn’t ask a question.

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That’s pretty much the take away I got from the quote. Doesn’t mitigate how bad it will be received though.

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“There was a sort of particularized focus and perhaps even a legitimacy …”

And that’s all it takes for the RWNJ echo chamber to excoriate him from here to eternity, and Democrats by association. Look at how they twisted Obama’s words about America winning. They don’t even have to twist Kerry’s words; all they have to do is truncate them.

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John Kerry has really big feet, but nonetheless manages to fit them in his mouth on a regular basis. Dumber than hell thing to say, and he obviously wasn’t saying the attacks were justified. Attacks on his patriotism from his critics over this are also completely unjustified. What is justified is gentle chiding from his own side over his misbegotten decision to articulate a poorly-formed thought which would have been so much better left unsaid.

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Nobody is justifying it. And you just admitted that the rationalization exists. Period.