President Obama's recent comment that ISIS doesn't present an existential threat to the United States clearly stands at odd with the facts. Why doesn't he take this threat more seriously? The president has a pattern of behavior when it comes to showing what he cares about --- and what he doesn't. His comments and demeanor following the attacks in Belgium reveal his disinterest in ISIS and terrorism. And people are starting to notice.
Michael Hayden, Former Director of the National Security Agency, recently said this about Obama's remarks from a ballpark in Cuba:
I'm going to say something that's going to sound pretty harsh, but I think it's true. That wasn't a mistake. That wasn't weakness. That was policy. His going to the ballpark and his spending less than a minute commenting on the attack. I actually believe in his heart of hearts, the president's policy is, that is not that big a deal. There are other things that are more important. And that was what he was messaging.
Veteran NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw also took notice.
You know, so much of politics and national security is a combination of symbolism and reality. The reality is that we did have that attack yesterday. It was unnerving to us. It was devastating in Europe. But at the same time, the symbolism is that the president stayed at the baseball game all day long. Well, you would have thought he would have said, "Look, we've got more business that I have to deal with. I wish you well." Get on the phone. "We've got to put together some kind of a bullet-proof syndicate to deal with all of this." There's a real urgency about it, and he's got to convey that, not just to the American people, but to the world. I think it was Mike Hayden who said earlier that he is a leader of the free world, and this is a time to be the leader.
Today on The Glenn Beck Program, Glenn took a trip down memory lane to compare the president tone when he's passionate about something, and when he's not.
Anne Bayefsky, a member of the International Law Association Committee on Human Rights, said this the day after the attacks in Belgium.
Belgium attacks put the high commissioner's capacity building reports on state suffering from the scourge of Islamic terrorism into stark relief. Reports indicate that the attacks began with the terrorists, and I quote, shouting something in Arabic. Were they shouting "give me a job," or "my rights have been violated by Belgium law enforcement officers," or "I'm frustrated and losing hope because non-Muslims occupy what belongs to me?"
The high commissioner reports actually suggest such possibilities would make sense. For Palestinians who stab, mutilate, and gun down pregnant women, old men, and little children, are, quote, frustrated men who have, quote, lost hope and therefore understandably believe that the best way to create an apartheid Palestinian state is to kill the Jews who live there.
Now, this line of reasoning, however, is somewhat problematic for effective capacity building. It's not quite fashionable for ISIS or al-Qaeda or the Taliban to call people martyrs who blow body parts off Europeans or Africans from Libya to Yemen.
And yet the majority in this council has no problem with Palestinian leader Abasis HEP calling people martyrs, who blow body parts off Israelis.
Now, one might say this is exactly where the high commissioner can offer moral clarity, given his reports' constant references to equality. Instead, according to the high commissioner, some human rights victims are more equal than others.
In 2015, says his annual report, the only religious group the world over that experienced racial discrimination, xenophobia, and related intolerance worth mentioning are Muslims.
"That speech was given the day after Belgium at the U.N.," Glenn said. "And the room was empty. She is speaking truth."
Featured Image: U.S. President Barack Obama (L) and Cuban President Raul Castro talk during an exposition game between the Cuban national baseball team and Major League Baseball's Tampa Bay Devil Rays at the Estado Latinoamericano March 22, 2016 in Havana, Cuba. This is the first time a sitting president has visited Cuba in 88 years. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)