From the Desk
Two more men have died — brutally beheaded — at the hands of Islamic State militants in recent days. Two more families will never see their loved ones come home.
And now, after the beheadings of Japanese hostages Kenji Goto and Haruna Yukawa, the U.S. has two more reasons pushing us to do something.
Yet, President Barack Obama, his administration and many in the media do not seem concerned with much other than political correctness in these situations.
How many times do we need to hear Obama, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest and State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki skirt around the issue? How many more ways can they avoid using the words “terrorists” or “Islamic extremists?” How many more times can our government officials offer condolences, but never address the central issue, before we have had enough?
In recent weeks and months, attacks on innocent civilians have stretched beyond the violent beheadings implicated in the videos released by Islamic State militants. The terrors have taken place across the world — from Paris to Australia — and the incidents have produced a ripple effect that has extended far beyond the borders of those places.
But our government is more concerned with toning down our responses in order to avoid offending those of the Islamic faith rather than taking action to stop the Islamic militants who have gone to extreme measures in the name of that faith.
The problem is that many in our society refuse to acknowledge that this is not just a war for territory or dominance. This is a war with innate religious implications, and the ramifications wield a deadly attack on religious freedom.
Following the Paris attacks, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls addressed the incidents, saying the world is “waging a war against Islamic extremists.” In the same way, British Prime Minister David Cameron said Europe and the United States must confront a “very
serious Islamist extremist terrorist threat,” according to Fox News.
Instead of making our own strong statements on the matter as the French and British leaders did, our government keeps denying the fact that the people carrying out these attacks are, in fact, proponents of Islam, and they are committing terrorist attacks.
Critics of Obama and his administration, which include a number of members of Congress from both sides of the aisle, have explained that the U.S. must not be afraid to clearly define the people behind all these horrible acts of terror.
“Unless you understand who your enemy is, unless you clearly identify your enemy, then you cannot come up with a very effective strategy to defeat that enemy,” Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, a democrat from Hawaii, said.
Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire echoed the thoughts of Gabbard with her statement about how Obama and his administration have handled these matters.
“The administration should spend less time on political correctness and more time on a strategy,” Ayotte said.
Included in the criticism is Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, chair of the Democratic National Committee, who believes it is “Islamic fundamentalists” who are responsible for the terrorist attacks around the world, including the massacre at the Charlie Hebdo headquarters in January.
“We have work to do,” Wasserman Schultz said of the media’s bias against Israel. “We have work to do to educate and to make sure that people understand there’s a very simple solution to this. It’s called recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish and democratic state.”
How long will it be before the Obama administration finally realizes that strategy, rather than semantics, should be at the top of our priority list? How long will it be before religious liberty trumps political pandering?
BROWN is the editor-in-chief