Theres a lot to say about Obamas big speech announcing whats essentially a third war in Iraq. But one passage from Obamas speech - where he defines the nature of the threat from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) - is really striking, and worth pulling out in detail: [ISIS] poses a threat to the people of Iraq and Syria, and the broader Middle East - including American citizens, personnel and facilities. If left unchecked, these terrorists could pose a growing threat beyond that region - including to the United States. Did you catch that? Obama is admitting, tacitly, that ISIS is not currently a threat to the American homeland. It threatens the broader Middle East, but only could pose a growing threat to the United States. Theres always a lot in what he DOESNT say that is more revealing than his actual words. The US is attacking ISIS because it one day might be a threat, not because its capable of executing an attack in the US right now - but then, Obama is not allowing our military to do the jobs they SHOULD be doing to eliminate Islamic terrorism. We do have the firepower to give them a good what fer, but Obama is reluctant to do so because of his commitment to pushing the narrative that Islam is a religion and these guys are just radical extremists. On one level, this is a fairly realistic assessment of the ISIS threat. Independent experts on jihadi groups believe that ISIS is neither super-interested in nor super-capable of hitting the American homeland right now. That said, they also agree that if ISIS grew stronger, it very well might launch attacks on the United States. On another level, it makes his decision to launch a major military campaign much more confusing. Obama compared his military campaign to the ongoing drone strike campaign in Yemen, but thats wrong in two ways. First, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula - AQs Yemen branch - is more than a potential threat to the US. It has already attempted several attacks on the US homeland. On a third level, it makes Obamas speech deeply ironic: Obama is using George W. Bushs arguments to launch a war in Iraq - a man that he has blamed all his failures on since he was placed in our White House. Not that I agree with Bush on anything, but with all the contempt Obama has shown him, hes doing EXACTLY what he said he wouldnt. But hey, at the expense of American lives, Obama has ratings to think about. Damn the American people...GIVE ME RATINGS!! Alls fair in love and war...right? Lets not start losing our heads over a little Islamic terrorism...
Posted on: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 05:07:34 +0000
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