Tag Archives: jihadism

Applying Selma’s Moral Clarity To Iran

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President Obama's address on the 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery march contained moral clarity that is lacking in his negotiations with Tehran. [Credit: ABC News]

Pres­i­dent Oba­ma’s address on the 50th anniver­sary of the Sel­ma to Mont­gomery march con­tained moral clar­i­ty that is miss­ing from his nego­ti­a­tions with Tehran. [Cred­it: ABC News]

Amer­i­ca is not some frag­ile thing.  We are large, in the words of Whit­man, con­tain­ing mul­ti­tudes.  We are bois­ter­ous and diverse and full of ener­gy, per­pet­u­al­ly young in spir­it. Pres­i­dent Barack Oba­ma, March 7, 2015, Sel­ma, Alabama

The days when the Jew­ish peo­ple remained pas­sive in the face of geno­ci­dal ene­mies, those days are over….Even if Israel has to stand alone, Israel will stand. Prime Min­is­ter Ben­jamin Netanyahu, March 3, 2015, Wash­ing­ton.

Two speech­es, deliv­ered just four days apart, remind­ed us how lead­ers can moti­vate and inspire, stir our pas­sions and call us to great things.  Most of all, they can bring moral clar­i­ty to the com­plex real­i­ties of a messy world. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Winning By Not Winning In Iraq and Syria

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U.S. airstrikes have slowed the progress of Islamic State fighters, but the war may drag on for years. Why that's good for us. [Credit: Telegraph]

U.S. airstrikes have slowed the progress of Islam­ic State fight­ers, but the war may drag on for years. Why that’s good for us. [Cred­it: Telegraph]

The Pres­i­dent was asked a sim­ple ques­tion a few weeks ago: are we win­ning the war against the Islam­ic State?

He wouldn’t answer the ques­tion direct­ly, so I will.  We’re win­ning in Iraq and Syr­ia by not win­ning.  The net effect of our actions has so far been to keep extrem­ist Mus­lims of var­i­ous eth­nic­i­ties and sec­tar­i­an pas­sions engaged in war against … each oth­er.  And that may be the best pos­si­ble out­come in the cir­cum­stances. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Hamas And Progressivism

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Hamas fighters celebrated the arrival of Islamic law in Gaza in 2007. But the group, a darling of progressives, still has not succeeded in destroying Israel. [Credit: Telegraph.uk]

Hamas fight­ers cel­e­brat­ed the arrival of Islam­ic law in Gaza in 2007. But the group, a dar­ling of pro­gres­sives, still has not suc­ceed­ed in destroy­ing Israel. [Cred­it: Telegraph.uk]

“The time will not come until Mus­lims will fight the Jews (and kill them); until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: O Mus­lim! there is a Jew hid­ing behind me, come on and kill him!”  Hamas Char­ter, Arti­cle VII

“Under­stand­ing Hamas [and] Hezbol­lah as social move­ments that are pro­gres­sive, that are on the left, that are part of a glob­al left, is extreme­ly impor­tant.”  Berke­ley Pro­fes­sor Judith But­ler

The war that pits Israel against the pro­gres­sive social move­ment known as Hamas has returned to dor­man­cy.  The most recent out­break of blood­shed did not end with rocks and trees turn­ing Jews over to their Mus­lim pur­suers for exter­mi­na­tion.  The glob­al left will have to wait for his­to­ry to progress to that geno­ci­dal out­come. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Why We Won’t Destroy The Islamic State

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Our Shiite allies in the war against the terrorist Islamic State [IS] also have a taste for terror, which is one reason why we probably won't destroy the IS. [Credit: Getty Images]

Our Shi­ite allies in the war against the ter­ror­ist Islam­ic State [IS] also have a taste for ter­ror, which is one rea­son why we prob­a­bly won’t destroy the IS. [Cred­it: Get­ty Images]

Pres­i­dent Oba­ma seems to have found his inner neocon.

This past week, he called on the world to unite behind a “com­mon effort to extract this can­cer,” as he char­ac­ter­ized the Islam­ic State [IS].  Our ever-bel­li­cose chief diplo­mat shunned metaphors and spoke more direct­ly.  The IS, Ker­ry said, “and the wicked­ness it rep­re­sents must be destroyed.”

Thus did our lat­est incur­sion into Iraq, which began as a mis­sion to res­cue Yazidis trapped on a moun­tain, become some­thing more.  But words are cheap.  War is cost­ly.  The Pres­i­dent lacks the resolve to make good on his threat to extract the can­cer that is the Islam­ic State.

Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Iraq: In Search Of An Organizing Principle

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The President has decided to fight jihadists threatening to kill Yazidis with bombs instead of hashtags. But it's not clear why. [Credit: Business Insider]

Sun­ni rad­i­cals are threat­en­ing to mas­sacre an obscure eth­nore­li­gious group known as Yazidis.  The Pres­i­dent has decid­ed to fight the jihadists with bombs instead of hash­tags. But it’s not clear why. [Cred­it: Busi­ness Insider]

“Great nations need orga­niz­ing prin­ci­ples, and ‘Don’t do stu­pid stuff’ is not an orga­niz­ing prin­ci­ple.” For­mer Sec­re­tary of State Hillary Clin­ton.

Anoth­er August.  Anoth­er flir­ta­tion with war.  In the psy­chodra­ma that is the Oba­ma Pres­i­den­cy, our hero vac­il­lates between war and peace, detach­ment and inter­ven­tion, rid­ing out the storm and steer­ing into its teeth.  The rest of us are left to guess whether he will respond to the next human­i­tar­i­an cri­sis with bombs or hash­tags.  There is, as Mrs. Clin­ton notes, no “orga­niz­ing prin­ci­ple” to lend coher­ence to our for­eign pol­i­cy. Con­tin­ue read­ing →