‘Such Atrocities Can Never Be Rationalized’: Kerry Clarifies Comments on Terrorist Attacks

Secretary of State John Kerry has gotten lots of criticism for saying yesterday of the Paris terrorist attack, “There’s something different about what happened from Charlie Hebdo, and I think everybody would feel that. There was a sort of particularized focus and perhaps even a legitimacy in terms of – not a legitimacy, but a rationale that you could attach yourself to somehow and say, okay, they’re really angry because of this and that.”

Well, naturally, people got upset over Kerry speaking in any context of a “rationale” for a terrorist attack, and today Kerry––without directly addressing what he said yesterday––clarified his language on the matter.

Kerry addressed the Overseas Security Advisory Council in Washington, D.C., and made it clear there are “no grounds… that justify the slaughter of unarmed civilians, the bombing of public places, or indiscriminate violence towards innocent men, women, and children.”

He then said, “And such atrocities can never be rationalized, and we can never allow them to be rationalized. There’s no excuse. They have to be stopped.”

Watch the video above, via WaPo.

[h/t National Review]
[image via screengrab]

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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

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