Obama Soft On Radical Islamists
According to Wikipedia, the first recorded terrorist attack on U.S. soil was in 1920, when several pounds of dynamite were made into a bomb that exploded in a horse-drawn wagon near Wall Street in New York City.
Neither the perpetrators nor a motive were ever found, but at the time it was believed to have been the work of Bolshevist anarchists. The fate of the horse was never mentioned.
Since that time – but mostly in the last 30 years – there have been dozens of terrorist attacks on U.S. embassies, diplomatic and military facilities, and commercial enterprises, terrorist hijackings of U.S. ships and aircraft, and incidents of U.S. hostages held.
The result has been more than 3,500 American lives lost, countless injured from both the U.S. and associated foreign countries and, with the obvious exception of the two attacks on New York’s World Trade Center towers, nearly all have been in the Middle East. And 99 percent have been carried out by radical Islamic terrorists (RITs).
While speaking to a vast array of audiences over the past 30 years, the most frequently asked question during Q&A has been: “Capt. Coffee, what do you think is the greatest threat to the security of our country?”
I used to simply answer, “International terrorism,” but for several years now I have been able to respond more specifically:
“Without a doubt, radical Islamic terrorism.”
The events in Boston these past couple of weeks have added even more credibility to that assertion.
After the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center, it was apparent we had entered a totally new phase of war against RITs, one in which the only way to measure victory might be the lengths of time between similar future attacks. In reality, we have done even better than I thought we would.
By driving the Taliban out of Afghanistan, thus closing al-Qaida training camps, opening Guantanamo Bay as a prison and interrogation site with geographic advantages (not on U.S. soil), implementing the Patriot Act, and using enhanced interrogation techniques, we have been able thus far to preclude another 9/11-style attack.
This is thanks in great part to the continuing momentum of the strategy put into place by the Bush administration and, to his credit, kept in place by President Obama. He also has followed through on the hunt-to-the-death of Osama bin Laden, and his drone-borne war on other al-Qaida leaders has been fairly successful.
But there is still one glaring shortcoming in our commander-in-chief’s war strategy: identifying and calling out our enemy for what it obviously is, RITs. When Maj. Hasan exclaims, “Allahu Akbar!” as he is letting the blood of his fellow soldiers flow, that’s a sure sign of RITs.
Yet the White House still refers to the Fort Hood massacre as “workplace violence.” Talk about politically correct to the absurd.
Similarly, the president and his spokespeople were again very slow to call a terrorist a terrorist with the Boston bombers, even as we watched video of them planting their lethal backpacks in the crowd, or when they murdered a MIT security officer in cold blood, or were lobbing homemade grenades at the pursuing police.
Growing up in a practicing Muslim society during his most formative years, his statement that “the Muslim call to prayers at sunset is the prettiest sound in the world” may be understandable, but it sure undermines his credibility as the leader against America’s No. 1 enemy: RITs.
C’mon, Mr. President, the stakes are way too high for any ambiguity or uncertainty as our leader in our fight-tothe-death enemy, RITs. Get off the fence!
