Jihadist ideology can be defeated through improved education, according to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, but it might require an assist from rural America.
“I think the most important thing on that is probably education,” Mattis told a reporter at a school newspaper in Washington state. “I sometimes wonder how much better the world would be if we funded for nations where they have ideology problems, where the ideologies are hateful, full of hatred.”
Mattis, famed as a Marine Corps general for encouraging officers to study history, suggested that some education reforms are brewing in Saudi Arabia. A former king funded scholarships for Saudi students to study in Western countries, he recalled, saying that U.S. foreign aid might profitably be used in a similar way.
“It wouldn’t cost that much if you had sponsoring families that would take them in,” Mattis told The Islander, which is published by Mercer Island High School in Washington state. “Most American families are very generous, unless they’ve lived in places where they’ve adopted kind of a selfish style. But, that’s only a few pockets of the country that really have that bad. Although they’re big pockets in terms of population, most of the country is not like that. I bet we could do that.”
Mattis agreed to be interviewed after a student reporter obtained his personal cellphone number from a photo of a document published by The Washington Post.
“I grew up in Washington state on the other side of the mountains there on the Columbia River. I just thought I’d give you a call,” he said when asked why he accepted the request. “I’ve always tried to help students because I think we owe it to you young folks to pass on what we learned going down the road so that you can make your own mistakes, not the same ones we made.”
