Anyone who would target an aid worker like Kayla Mueller represents the "face of evil" and must be stopped, said Kathleen Troia "KT" McFarland, former deputy assistant secretary of defense under President Reagan.
McFarland, now a national security analyst, appeared Tuesday on Fox News Channel's
"Your World with Neil Cavuto" just after a tearful press conference from Mueller's family and friends. The 26-year-old aid worker was kidnapped by the Islamic State (ISIS) while working in Syria, and her death was confirmed Tuesday.
ISIS claims Mueller was killed during an airstrike on an ISIS target by Jordan, but the Pentagon has not confirmed how or when Mueller died.
McFarland compared the reaction to Mueller's death to the aftermath of 9/11 when Fareed Zakaria asked in a
Newsweek cover story, "Why Do They Hate Us?"
"How could you hate a girl like that?" McFarland asked. "That girl wanted to do good. She was killed because of it. Those guards knew her. She wasn't a soldier."
"I look at that and say if people could kill someone like that, that's the face of evil and you don't negotiate with evil," she said. "You don't deal with evil as anyway other than kill evil. Because they will kill and kill and kill the most innocent and lovely among us."
The West looks at Mueller and sees someone who should be celebrated and protected, McFarland said, but the terrorists see her as someone who is weak, vulnerable, and an easy target.
"I think it is the responsibility of the civilized world and our American leadership to say, 'Enough — we will not let this happen again,'" McFarland said. "You will not take our best among us. You will not do this. You are evil. We will recognize it."
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.