White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Monday that the country is, in effect, in a "narrative battle" with the Islamic State terrorist organization, which has designs on a global caliphate.
In some ways, Earnest said on Morning Joe, this is "just a war of narratives." A new montage shows President Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry and the rest of the administration are keen on turning the battle with ISIS into a war of words and ideas, and getting out our "counter-narrative" to stop the "terrorist narrative."
Some of the worst things we can do, the administration has explained, is engage in acts that will advance the ISIS narrative that the West is at war with Islam. Earnest has called the ISIS narrative "one of their most powerful weapons."
Essentially, we need to tell a better story than the death cult jihadists, but Obama has bemoaned before that while his team has gotten the "policy right," one of his weaknesses has been selling it.
Similarly, the Obama administration and liberal media allies are fond of explaining "what ISIS wants," which often seems to be whatever the White House's political opposition is suggesting.
