scathing US news article on Obama's naivety about the war against Islamic extremism

[Yankeefan2009]

Historians may judge that January 10, 2015, was when western Europeans became serious about the war the West is in. It has also exposed the doublespeak from the Obama administration, which, out of fear, avoids using the proper language to describe the war we are in and propagates a dangerous myth about the cause of terrorism.

On Saturday,*in the wake of the Paris attacks, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said that his country was engaged in “a war against terrorism, against jihadism, against radical Islam, against everything that is aimed at breaking fraternity, freedom, solidarity.”*Valls had stated what many in the United States government, and some in Congress refuse to acknowledge. This is not a war against terrorists; terrorism is a tactic to achieve a political end, not an end in itself. This is a war against Islamic extremism, representing a fundamentalist, large minority of Muslims worldwide.

[SEE:*2014: The Year in Cartoons]

The rise of the Islamic State group proves that Islamic extremists were following their stated goal: They knew that a campaign of terror to achieve conquest would never work. Ultimately they required territory through old-fashioned invasion. This is what the Taliban achieved in Afghanistan prior to their ouster by the United States, and this is what the Islamic State group is attempting in Iraq and Syria. The West is not engaged in counterterrorism*in this part of the world, but rather counter invasion. Ultimately the West will be required to use ground troops to remove them, a cost we would not have had to incur had the proper actions, that were advised, taken place in 2013.

The first fallacy of the Obama administration is to continue to foster the fantasy that the prime strategy for the U.S. is counterterrorism operations, and therefore avoid any declaration of war against the world of Islamic extremism. This is why the administration is so heavily focused on special operations and drone strikes. This is also why there was – and is – the massive drawdown in Iraq and Afghanistan. The administration has used every term other than stating that the war is against Islamic extremism – from the first presidential term’s use of “overseas contingency operations” and “man-caused disasters” to the White House's upcoming “Summit on Countering Violent Extremism.”

[MORE:*Paris Attacks Reveal Extent of Islamist Threat]

In the end, this is an act of avoidance that does nothing to advance the Western agenda or mollify its enemies. This leads to the second fallacy that Valls inadvertently exposed. The*Obama team has adopted a view propagated by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and President Bill Clinton, which*argues that American foreign policy actions cause terrorism. The latest push is over the prison at Guantanamo Bay.*The case being made to reduce America as a target is that high-level detainees need to be released, even if it is recognized that a good percentage will not only return to assist in extremism, but also return to actual combat against the United States. What is almost laughable is that so many attacks against U.S. forces, personnel, diplomats and people occurred prior to the existence of the Guantanamo prison – for instance, the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia, the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in*Kenya and Tanzania and*the 2000 suicide attack on the USS Cole,*not to mention the 9/11 attacks themselves.*Does anyone seriously believe that if we closed Guantanamo and even left the Middle East, that the Islamic extremists’ movement would be satisfied? What possible reading of anything that the extremists have written or stated would lead any literate person to believe this? It is so fantastical that it reduces truth to an inconvenient fact.

[SEE:*Editorial Cartoons on the Islamic State]

There is no evidence that indicates that engaging in the mental gymnastics of avoiding the term “Islam” when discussing terrorism or extremism, or that closing the prison at Guantanamo, would reduce the hatred of the Islamic extremist movement for the American people and the U.S. government by one millimeter. It was an equal fantasy to believe that by killing Osama bin Laden you could end the war forever. The Bush administration made the same case against Islamic extremists as the Reagan administration had made about communism: Until you view this as a long war that is as much about ideology as it is about bullets and bombs, there will be no victory. Islamic extremism is the enemy of the United States and the West. The extremists will not cease until they are victorious. There can be no concessions; there is no ability to make peace with them. The Islamic extremists’ political goal to seize territory and governments must be thwarted, reversed and decimated. The inability or unwillingness of leaders to recognize this has cost us and the world thousands of lives and untold misery. Stopping the Islamic extremists*is the real cause of human rights, but it is one that actually has a price.

[NY The Vampire State]

The rise of the Islamic State group proves that Islamic extremists were following their stated goal: They knew that a campaign of terror to achieve conquest would never work. Ultimately they required territory through old-fashioned invasion.

That is right on.

*Does anyone seriously believe that if we closed Guantanamo and even left the Middle East, that the Islamic extremists’ movement would be satisfied?

Of course not, their intention is to destroy all the non believers on the planet.

[HipKat]

If the French Prime Minister is correct about the War the French have apparently decided to join 13 years after it started, does that mean he'll go after the No Go Zones you people on the right were just crying about last week? It doesn't need to be publicly said that the war is against Islamic Extremism. Everyone knows this already. Just another Right Wing squawking point

[Save Us]

Just like in WWII when we just had to fight the nazi party....

[leftWNYbecauseofBS]

It doesn't need to be publicly said that the war is against Islamic Extremism.

Yes it does and I don't think you even know what this means.

[HipKat]

Yes it does and I don't think you even know what this means.

No, it doesn't moron. You think if the US publicly announced it was at war with a Religious faction that would get us any brownie points with, say, anyone?? Or maybe, JUST maybe it would inspire those Islamic Extremists to step it up and launch another atrocity in the Continental US.

And don't question my comprehension on anything, you smug, self-righteous, know-it-all p***k

[leftWNYbecauseofBS]

No, it doesn't moron. You think if the US publicly announced it was at war with a Religious faction that would get us any brownie points with, say, anyone?? Or maybe, JUST maybe it would inspire those Islamic Extremists to step it up and launch another atrocity in the Continental US.

And don't question my comprehension on anything, you smug, self-righteous, know-it-all p***k

Ya. You don't know what this means. It's ok.

[HipKat]

I only WISH I knew everything about everything and was always right, like you are, smug p***k.
Life must be wonderful when out THINK you know everything and REFUSE to admit when you don't

[Sam_Eagle]

No, it doesn't moron. You think if the US publicly announced it was at war with a Religious faction that would get us any brownie points with, say, anyone?? Or maybe, JUST maybe it would inspire those Islamic Extremists to step it up and launch another atrocity in the Continental US.

No.

Do you honestly think that anything we say or do would have the Islamic Extremists stop their attacks against us? It's foolish to think that considering 9/11, Beirut bombings, USS cole etc all happened before Guantanamo bay or Abu Ghraib. The fact is whether we like it or not, we are at war with Islamic Extremism because they are at war with us. And want to kill us all because we are not Muslim. No amount of politically correct gymnastics and dodging the "I" word changes any of this because it is a FACT.

[HipKat]

No.

Do you honestly think that anything we say or do would have the Islamic Extremists stop their attacks against us? It's foolish to think that considering 9/11, Beirut bombings, USS cole etc all happened before Guantanamo bay or Abu Ghraib. The fact is whether we like it or not, we are at war with Islamic Extremism because they are at war with us. And want to kill us all because we are not Muslim. No amount of politically correct gymnastics and dodging the "I" word changes any of this because it is a FACT.

Of course we are .Everyone knows we are, but for as much as the Right carried on about Benghazi, which was an attacked based on comments about Islam, wtf do you think would happen if the US Came out and publicly announced the war is on Islam?? Are you freaking serious?