[Iraq Sun] U.S. Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you knowKerry
Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a
lucky hat,conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State...
is meeting with representatives of Middle Eastern and Gulf states to discuss security challenges in the wake of a quick advance of an Islamist insurgency. A radical group that calls itself the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant has taken control of large swaths of northern Iraq and threatens to capture Iraq's capital, Storied Baghdad. The onslaught by the Death Eaters began two weeks ago, sparking panic among Shia Mohammedans along their path and an exodus of people from the cities that have fallen under their control. Secretary Kerry told an audience at NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis....
headquarters in Brussels Wednesday that the threat is not confined to the region. "None of us need to be reminded that a faraway threat can have tragic consequences at home, in the most unexpected way and the most unexpected moment," he stated. Kerry urged the entire international community to focus on combating the growth of extremism which increasingly crosses state borders as evidenced in Iraq.
"That's a new animal in a sense, and I think we are seeing with ISIL, crossing from Syria and moving rapidly into Iraq a similar kind of hybrid - new form of effort which is going to require people to think through strategically, intelligence gathering, preparations, response, response times, nature of response, and that's what the NATO alliance has always done effectively and that's what a lot of today's discussion focused on," he said. Kerry said NATO members have to work on improving vigilance instead of building permanent bases.