Television actor and counterterrorism expert Mandy Patinkin said on Friday that the U.S. should bomb the Middle East "with opportunity" to defeat Islamic terrorism.
Patinkin’s dramatic roles on all sides of the war on terror has given him a nuanced understanding of the issue: he plays a CIA station chief on the series Homeland and played terrorist leader Che Guevara in the musical Evita. Patinkin has also talked to some real-life intelligence officials.
Patinkin told the hosts of CBS This Morning that his viewers are searching for answers following a spree of terrorist attacks, notably in the United States and France.
"I think people tune in to our show [Homeland] because they are looking for an answer, they are looking for some insight to a world that is on fire," Patinkin said.
The answer? Hitting terrorist havens "with everything the West has."
"What if we bombed all of these people with opportunity, with infrastructure, with schools, with medical facilities, with homes, with everything the West has?" Patinkin said. "What if we gave them everything imaginable to make their lives wonderful?"
Patinkin singled out the Gaza Strip and West Bank as targets for an opportunity offensive.
"Give them everything we have and want for our children so no one in that epicenter of existence can sit back and say we are being cheated, we are not given freedom, justice, and dignity—which is all anyone wants," Patinkin said.
Patinkin’s grand strategy for defeating terrorism bears similarity to the comments of top government officials. Marie Harf, senior adviser to Secretary of State John Kerry, said in February that the U.S. "cannot kill our way out of this war," but must instead address root causes of terrorism like "lack of opportunity for jobs."
It is unclear whether Patinkin was acting as an official spokesman of administration policy in his interview on Friday.
While Patinkin wants the U.S. to give peace a chance, the characters he has played have not shied away from the use of force.
Patinkin’s character in the 1987 film The Princess Bride, Inigo Montoya, is a Spanish swordsman consumed by the desire to revenge his murdered father.
"Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die," Montoya said to the killer, Count Rugen, before mutilating his face and stabbing him in the gut.