War & Peace Quote by Mark Kennedy

Kennedy’s line is less a description of terrorism than a framing device: it turns a complex, politically rooted threat into a moral vacuum that can’t be negotiated with, only confronted. By declaring the enemy “respects no laws of warfare or morality,” he strips them of the status that law would otherwise confer (combatant, belligerent, even criminal with rights) and positions the state as the lone legitimate actor. That move matters because it pre-clears political space for extraordinary measures - broader surveillance, expanded executive power, military action with fewer qualms about reciprocity - all justified by the claim that normal rules don’t apply.

The phrase “individual members” narrows the enemy to atomized agents of evil rather than an organized movement with grievances, strategy, or constituency. It discourages curiosity about causes and foregrounds pathology: they kill “just to create chaos.” “Just” is doing heavy work here, collapsing ideology, geopolitics, and retaliation into spectacle and nihilism.

Then comes the media hook: “for news cameras.” It’s a shrewd and culturally resonant accusation, tapping post-24-hour-news anxieties that violence is engineered for attention. Subtext: the public is being manipulated, and the press is an unwitting accomplice. The politician, by contrast, claims the steadier moral vantage point, offering clarity in a moment designed to feel disorienting.

Contextually, this rhetoric fits the post-9/11 political style: define the adversary as outside civilization, link them to spectacle and chaos, and invite unity behind state power while sidelining debates about legality, proportionality, or root causes.