In a Senate Committee hearing on ISIS, Secretary of State John Kerry is asked about his predecessor, Hillary Clinton’s comments that the U.S. should “empathize” with its enemies. Kerry did his best to spin, claiming Clinton was not referring to enemies engaged in active combat against each other.
In fact, in fuller context, Clinton’s remarks were precisely in reference to enemies engaged in deadly combat against each other. Clinton’s reference to “what we call smart power,” followed her example of negotiations between the Government of the Philippines and the Moro Liberation Front, an Islamic insurgent group that had waged a decades long bloody guerilla campaign that had claimed over 120,000 lives.