Obama’s Orlando Response Proves He’s In Denial About Terrorism



By D.C. McAllister - Posted at The Federalist:

In a speech Tuesday, President Obama asked, in defensive tones, “That’s the key, they tell us. We cannot beat ISIL unless we call them radical Islamists. What exactly would using this label would accomplish? What exactly would it change? Would it make ISIL less committed to try to kill Americans? …So someone seriously thinks that we don’t know who we are fighting?”

No, Mr. President, you don’t know whom you’re fighting. When you refuse to say the name, to call a thing what it is, you give it power. Just ask Lord Voldemort. Refusing to speak the name reeks of fear, denial, and distraction. When you call out someone for who he is and what he believes, you are exposing him. You’re saying, “I know you. I know where and how to find you. And I will destroy you.” It empowers us and weakens them.

Omar Mateen, who killed 49 people in a gay nightclub, told us exactly who he was. He pledged allegiance to a foreign enemy who has been our adversary since before 9/11. They are radical Islamists, who are committed to violent jihad. Of course they leave off the modifier and simply call themselves Islamists or soldiers of Islam. Out of respect, maybe we should do the same. How a person identifies himself is what matters to the rest of us, and we can’t impose another identity on them against their will. So Islamist it is.

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