Obama vs. Islamic State: Freedom Is More Powerful Than Fear and We Refuse to
Take the Bait (Video)
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/obama_vs_islamic_state_freedom_is_more_p
owerful_than_fear_20151207/
Posted on Dec 7, 2015
By Juan Cole
This post originally ran on Truthdig contributor Juan Cole's website.
President Obama addressed the nation on Sunday night, in an attempt to calm
the public mood after the San Bernardino killers were tied to Daesh (ISIS,
ISIL) - though the connection seems to spring merely from common radicalism
and murderousness rather than any organizational tie.
Obama stood firm against the temptation to use the shootings at a facility
to aid the challenged as a pretext for war abroad.
One of Obama's main points is that radical Muslim terrorist groups have had
to evolve since September 11, since governments and industry have put in new
safeguards that make big operations against significant infrastructural or
security more difficult.
As a result, such groups and individuals are now hitting "soft targets" to
spread fear and panic. Whereas the 9/11 operation killed nearly 3,000
Americans and deeply harmed the travel industry, taking about 1% off
economic growth for one year, more recent instances of Daesh or al-Qaeda
violence in the US look more like lone wolf mass shootings than like
guerrilla operations capable of doing any significant economic harm.
Security procedures have made it much more difficult to inflict significant
harm. Forestalling lone wolf attacks by persons unconnected to the terrorist
group except as consumers of propaganda is almost impossible. But in turn,
such attacks don't do significant or lasting damage to the national economy,
though of course they are traumatizing and a tragedy for the direct victims.
Obama's advice to the American public is to tough out these soft target
attacks by sticking to our values and preserving our liberty, and by not
being baited into big foreign military quagmires.
Obama's message is entirely plausible as a response. After all, the Right
wing in the US has for decades has insisted that the right response to
hundreds of mass shootings is to preserve their peculiar interpretation of
the 2nd Amendment. Yet the same American Right, in the face of a small
number of radical Muslim mass shootings, wants us to dump overboard the
first, fourth and eighth amendments and the rights and liberties they
guarantee us.
Obama also warned against the corrosive influence of Islamophobia, and of
establishing religious tests for refugees and for other purposes.
Obama went beyond urging the public to just be steadfast in their commitment
to liberty. He suggested a 4-point plan to roll up Daesh.
1. Bombing Daesh in Syria and Iraq
2. arming and training Syrian and Iraqi troops to fight Daesh
3. disruption of Daesh terrorism in West through intelligence work
4. negotiating the Syrian civil war to an end
What Obama did not say is that these various measures aren't all that
effective and will only have an impact over several years. Bombing a
territory from the air with no ground force to take advantage of it is about
as close to useless and a military tactic can get. US training programs have
not been effective. Daesh's kind of terrorism is hard to disrupt, since
they attempt to appeal to lone wolves rather than running direct agents. As
for peace in Syria, I wouldn't hold my breath. Whether this message of
patience and steadfastness will be enough to assuage anxieties is not clear.
And more important than anxieties are the war lobbies, fueled by campaign
cash to hawks in Congress, which demand really big wars that are good for
their business.
http://www.truthdig.com/ http://www.truthdig.com/
Obama vs. Islamic State: Freedom Is More Powerful Than Fear and We Refuse to
Take the Bait (Video)
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/obama_vs_islamic_state_freedom_is_more_p
owerful_than_fear_20151207/
Posted on Dec 7, 2015
By Juan Cole
This post originally ran on Truthdig contributor Juan Cole's website.
President Obama addressed the nation on Sunday night, in an attempt to calm
the public mood after the San Bernardino killers were tied to Daesh (ISIS,
ISIL) - though the connection seems to spring merely from common radicalism
and murderousness rather than any organizational tie.
Obama stood firm against the temptation to use the shootings at a facility
to aid the challenged as a pretext for war abroad.
One of Obama's main points is that radical Muslim terrorist groups have had
to evolve since September 11, since governments and industry have put in new
safeguards that make big operations against significant infrastructural or
security more difficult.
As a result, such groups and individuals are now hitting "soft targets" to
spread fear and panic. Whereas the 9/11 operation killed nearly 3,000
Americans and deeply harmed the travel industry, taking about 1% off
economic growth for one year, more recent instances of Daesh or al-Qaeda
violence in the US look more like lone wolf mass shootings than like
guerrilla operations capable of doing any significant economic harm.
Security procedures have made it much more difficult to inflict significant
harm. Forestalling lone wolf attacks by persons unconnected to the terrorist
group except as consumers of propaganda is almost impossible. But in turn,
such attacks don't do significant or lasting damage to the national economy,
though of course they are traumatizing and a tragedy for the direct victims.
Obama's advice to the American public is to tough out these soft target
attacks by sticking to our values and preserving our liberty, and by not
being baited into big foreign military quagmires.
Obama's message is entirely plausible as a response. After all, the Right
wing in the US has for decades has insisted that the right response to
hundreds of mass shootings is to preserve their peculiar interpretation of
the 2nd Amendment. Yet the same American Right, in the face of a small
number of radical Muslim mass shootings, wants us to dump overboard the
first, fourth and eighth amendments and the rights and liberties they
guarantee us.
Obama also warned against the corrosive influence of Islamophobia, and of
establishing religious tests for refugees and for other purposes.
Obama went beyond urging the public to just be steadfast in their commitment
to liberty. He suggested a 4-point plan to roll up Daesh.
1. Bombing Daesh in Syria and Iraq
2. arming and training Syrian and Iraqi troops to fight Daesh
3. disruption of Daesh terrorism in West through intelligence work
4. negotiating the Syrian civil war to an end
What Obama did not say is that these various measures aren't all that
effective and will only have an impact over several years. Bombing a
territory from the air with no ground force to take advantage of it is about
as close to useless and a military tactic can get. US training programs have
not been effective. Daesh's kind of terrorism is hard to disrupt, since they
attempt to appeal to lone wolves rather than running direct agents. As for
peace in Syria, I wouldn't hold my breath. Whether this message of patience
and steadfastness will be enough to assuage anxieties is not clear. And more
important than anxieties are the war lobbies, fueled by campaign cash to
hawks in Congress, which demand really big wars that are good for their
business.
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