Amal Clooney Explains Why Simply Bombing ISIS Won’t Work: ‘You Can’t Kill an Idea That Way’

Humanitarian lawyer Amal Clooney appeared on the Today Show today to discuss her decision to take ISIS to court. Yes, she is suing ISIS for war crimes. Specifically, she’s going after them for genocide and human trafficking.

Her interview aired this morning, which was pretty timely, considering ISIS has praised the man responsible for a stabbing attack that took place this weekend in Minnesota.

Cynthia McFadden pressed Clooney on the decision to take ISIS to court, reminding her that “there are those who say … ISIS needs to be bombed out of existence.”

Clooney explained her decision and thinking like this:

You can’t kill an idea that way. You can kill individuals, but then that in itself can be used as propaganda for further recruitment. ISIS can just be reborn under a different name if you don’t actually change the narrative and change people’s minds. They are brainwashing people and I think one of the ways to take action against that is to expose their brutality and their corruption and partly, you can do that through trials.

That is certainly a different attitude than the one reflected so often in the media. The Republican nominee for President has mentioned the desire to “take out” the families of ISIS members and “bomb the shit out of ’em.”

More of the interview will air tonight on NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt.

[image via screengrab]

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