Obama's Strategy, Obama Defends Islam, Remembering 9/11

by Gary Bauer, Contributing Author: Obama's Strategy - President Obama delivered a prime-time address to the nation last night laying out his strategy for confronting ISIS (ISIL). Reaction to the president's address was mixed.

Obama apologists were in full campaign mode, arguing that Republican critics were simply playing politics. But there was considerable criticism from the left. For example:

• MSNBC's Chris Matthews didn't get a thrill up his leg this time. "I didn't hear in there how we're going to encourage … the Islamic world to go after ISIS," Matthews said. He added that Obama's other steps "didn't sound sufficient."
• Richard Engel, NBC's chief foreign correspondent, said that Obama's references to Yemen and Somalia as models of success were, "wildly off base, frankly. I think, it's an oversimplification of the problem."
• ABC's Rick Klein wrote that Obama was playing "catch-up with the public and himself," hoping to "reverse perceptions that he's been slow to respond" to ISIS. But, Klein adds, Obama "did not announce any new actions."

The fact is Obama's speech was little more than political theater. Does anyone believe that Obama now fully understands the danger we are facing?

Reuters notes that "As recently as August 8 … Obama dismissed as 'a fantasy' the argument that arming Syrian rebels earlier would have made a difference." Now Obama is going to arm the Syrian rebels.

Earlier in the year, Obama dismissed ISIS as a "JV" or junior varsity team. Now he says it is a "cancer" threatening the Middle East and America that must be destroyed.

Remember when Obama said he had no strategy? Now his strategy appears to be largely what everyone already knew -- more airstrikes and arming the Kurds. He needed a few more days to figure that out?

No, they needed a few days to see the polls and craft a speech to fit the politics of the hour.

But if you really want the evidence that he is not serious about the dangers we're facing, read on.

Obama Defends Islam…Again - Obama wasn't very far into his speech last night before he launched into a defense of Islam. First he said, " Now let's make two things clear: ISIL is not 'Islamic.'"

Well, Mr. President, the first "I" in "ISIL" stands for "Islamic." One hundred percent of its members are avowed Muslims. The one characteristic of every Westerner who has joined ISIL is that they were either born Muslim or converted to Islam. Practicing Baptists and Catholics need not apply.

Moreover, the first thing ISIL does when it conquers territory is impose Sharia or Islamic law, which they wouldn't care about if they weren't devout Muslims. Many Muslims bristle under Sharia law, but the imposition of Sharia is what ISIL members believe Allah demands of them.

Then Obama said this: "No religion condones the killing of innocents." Obama needs to check his Koran and talk to Hussein bin Mahmoud. The Koran specifically calls for the smiting or killing of the infidel. And, Mr. President, if you are an infidel, according to fundamentalist Muslims, you're not innocent.

It's true that many Muslims disagree. But a 2013 Pew poll of just 11 Muslim countries found that 13% of the respondents supported Al Qaeda. That equates to approximately 100 million Muslims. For the president to act like Al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad and ISIL (ISIS) are part of a fringe conspiracy to smear a peaceful religion is ludicrous.

This picture of a former British rapper
posing with a severed head

Obama noted that "the vast majority of victims have been Muslims." Well, Mr. President, that's the point. ISIL sees their Muslim victims as insufficiently committed to the faith, as apostates. The reason the overwhelming majority of victims have been Muslim is a matter of geography -- ISIL operates in a predominately Muslim region . . . for now.

If ISIL, Hamas and Hezbollah ever get to Israel, the great majority of their victims will be Jews. On the morning of 9/11, whose anniversary we are marking today, the great majority of victims were Americans -- Christians, Jews, members of other faiths and those with no faith.

Rather than going on TV to deny the obvious, our leaders, including George W. Bush, should be saying, "There is a war going on within Islam. The ascendant force within Islam wants to go back to its medieval roots of conquest. There is some resistance, but not nearly enough."

9/11 -- 13 Years Later - Thirteen years ago today our country was attacked by radical Islamists. Yes, Islamists. They struck our financial center and symbols of America's economic power. They struck the Pentagon, the symbol of America's military power and our commitment to defending freedom around the world.

They planned to strike a symbol of our republic, perhaps the White House or the Capitol. That plot was foiled when the brave passengers of Flight 93 organized the first American counterattack in what has been a long and difficult war.

This evening I will be speaking at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, reflecting on the events of that day, the attack on our consulate in Benghazi two years ago today and the war against Islamofascism that continues. Eight years ago, on that very campus, a jihadist drove his SUV into a group of students to "avenge the death of Muslims around the world."

Pray that America never loses the resolve to stand firm in the face of tyranny. Pray that future generations will answer the call as our fathers, grandfathers and Founding Fathers did, and as our brave men and women in uniform are doing today. Pray that America remains forever the land of the free and home of the brave.
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Gary Bauer is a conservative family values advocate and serves as president of American Values and chairman of the Campaign for Working Families

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