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Obama held a meeting Wednesday at the White House. The article discusses strategies and difficulties in choosing language faced by all presidents. The article discusses Bush's difficulties, as well.
Myself, I really don't care what precise language the president uses. I'm not that needy. I know who the enemy is. Bush's "War on Terror" was fine by me. Maybe we should go back to that. Anyway, the article ends:
Daniel Benjamin, who served as the State Department’s top counterterrorism official from 2009 to 2012, said he believed that the dispute was a “pseudocontroversy” driven largely by domestic politics, even if it has produced some clumsy moments in the White House press room. What the debate has missed, he said, is that any American president has to think about how his words are received overseas.
“Our allies against ISIS in the region are out there every day saying, ‘This is not Islam,’ ” said Mr. Benjamin, now at Dartmouth. “We don’t want to undermine them. Any good it would do to trumpet ‘Islamic radicalism’ would be overwhelmed by the damage it would do to those relationships.”
I don't believe it's a pseudocontroversy, but it's weak, and politically driven. If the president began using "Islamic radicalism," I wouldn't lose any sleep. But then what? What would change?
I remember Bush using the word crusade in a 2001 speech. Nobody here noticed, but the world reacted negatively. Later, "Bush sought to calm American Muslims' fears of a backlash against them on Monday by appearing at an Islamic center in Washington. There he assured Americans that "the face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. That's not what Islam is all about."" Europe cringes at Bush 'crusade' against terrorists - CSMonitor.com
I agree with Bush, and since the whole region is fighting ISIS, these are our allies - for now. Leave religion out of it and just kick their asses, which of course, we will do.
Last edited by nvxplorer; 02-19-2015 at 01:34 AM..
I do think it apt to describe the terrorists as radical Islamists. As long as we are clear that they subscribe to a twisted and sick version of their religion, and that it does not represent the majority, we are on accurate footing.
Of course, our president is incapable of any sort of clear and rational dealings on this topic. “Random killing of some folks”??!!
It's not just that he goes out of his way, to the point of absurdity, with avoiding mentioning it. It's that he has an obvious double standard. Brings up Christians when it's to deflect (the crusades and Inquisition lecture at the prayer breakfast) and ignores it when it's important (the 21 Coptic Christians who just had their heads sliced off because of it were simply "Egyption citizens"). Then yesterday at the generic terror summit bringing up the 3 Muslims killed in NC... even though the investigation is ongoing and we don't know yet if that had anything to do with it or if the whole thing was because of a fight over a parking spot.
Don't forget Marie Harf, in her doubling down on the ridiculousness, trying to deflect the topic by bringing up a guy in Africa from an obscure "Christian terrorist group" (she emphasized that). She sounded frustrated that no one talked about that anymore and most have never heard of it. Maybe because they're not close to being the same threat?
Come on. The administration is hugely biased and willfully ignorant on this whole topic, and it's to the point of being offensive, insulting, maybe even dangerous.
It's just critics grasping at straws to criticize. No matter what Obama says, they'll find some flaw in it and blow it way out of proportion. Like when he said "attack of terror" instead of "terrorist attack" and apparently that was code for "the president is a Muslim terrorist sympathizer".
It's not just that he goes out of his way, to the point of absurdity, with avoiding mentioning it. It's that he has an obvious double standard. Brings up Christians when it's to deflect (the crusades and Inquisition lecture at the prayer breakfast) and ignores it when it's important (the 21 Coptic Christians who just had their heads sliced off because of it were simply "Egyption citizens"). Then yesterday at the generic terror summit bringing up the 3 Muslims killed in NC... even though the investigation is ongoing and we don't know yet if that had anything to do with it or if the whole thing was because of a fight over a parking spot.
Don't forget Marie Harf, in her doubling down on the ridiculousness, trying to deflect the topic by bringing up a guy in Africa from an obscure "Christian terrorist group" (she emphasized that). She sounded frustrated that no one talked about that anymore and most have never heard of it. Maybe because they're not close to being the same threat?
Come on. The administration is hugely biased and willfully ignorant on this whole topic, and it's to the point of being offensive, insulting, maybe even dangerous.
ISIS is the beneficiary when people/ media portray ISIS as Islam/ all Muslims. Nothing would delight them more to have the West to declare Islam, the enemy.
There's a particularly barbaric terrorist cell in Africa that goes by the name of The Lord's Resistance Army, a Protestant sect. They make ISIS look like a bunch of pansies. Should all Protestants or Christians be labeled as terrorists because this group uses a twisted interpretation of religion to justify their actions?
It's just critics grasping at straws to criticize. No matter what Obama says, they'll find some flaw in it and blow it way out of proportion. Like when he said "attack of terror" instead of "terrorist attack" and apparently that was code for "the president is a Muslim terrorist sympathizer".
Obama is too busy defending the "religion of peace" to get distracted by the murder of innocent people.
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