Clemons: French Officials Criticizing ‘Absence of US Leadership’ Against Terror

MSNBC Contributor and Washington Editor-at-Large for the Atlantic, Steve Clemons stated that French officials he had talked with criticized lack of US support against fighting terrorism, with one arguing that, “ISIS has been incubated for two years with an absence of US leadership, and that the United States needs to take the security of its allies more seriously” during MSNBC’s coverage of the terrorist attacks in Paris on Saturday.

In response to a question about his conversations “with some French officials here in the United States expressing frustration about perhaps a lack of support from the US, in terms of France’s ability to fight this jihad.” Clemons said, “Well, the discussion I — was with French officials in Paris who were communicating this, and you know, in doing so, on a background basis, and on a personal basis, saying that one of the things that they’re facing is why did this happen, why did this happen? A lot of it has looked at their relation with the United States. I got an email this morning saying that’s not why, our proximity to Syria and all things Syria is profound and big, but he said the bigger part of this is that, for a variety of reasons, directly and indirectly, ISIS has been incubated for two years with an absence of US leadership, and that the United States needs to take the security of its allies more seriously, and it was a direct implication that we had not done and acted in a way to take action…he recognized in his email that I have a different view of that, that that’s not my view, but that — very clearly I sensed in these emails and the exchanges, frustration, tenseness, but also confidence. He said, we will prevail in this, but there was a real frustration and tenseness over that. And a frustration that — not only about what was happening and unfolding on the streets of Paris, but where it had come from, how it had been able to metastasize and to grow over the last two years.”

He added, “We may see within the next 24 hours some focus on Article 5 of NATO, and looking whether or not there will be a collective security commitment that we make, that almost compels us to move forward with a more muscular approach than we’ve given thusfar.”

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