The irrelevance of President Obama

Listening to President Barack Obama and his administration talk about terrorism reminds me of the movie “Airplane.” Throughout the 1980 comedy, the lead male character (Ted Striker) tells various passengers his story of love and loss – resulting in each one committing suicide in a humorous fashion because his story is so painful to hear.

Unlike the movie, there is nothing funny about – dare I say it – ISLAMIC TERRORISM, especially watching the inhumanity of it unfold on TV in the form of planes ramming buildings, bodies of massacred children laid side by side or a caged man burned alive. The commonality is that listening to Obama and his administration talk about these evildoers is also too painful to hear.

{mosads}The president’s unwillingness to say the “I” word is an offense to common decency. And I mean a transgression against all moral people whether Jewish, Christian or Muslim. The length to which he goes in order to insulate Islam from being associated with the greatest threat mankind has faced since the rise of the Nazis, is in itself an attack on what simply boils down to the archetypal battle between good and evil.

By no means am I saying that the president is a bad man. But his priorities in the war against terror – and his refusal to call out the ideology that threatens Western Civilization’s very existence – render him impotent to lead the battle between good and evil.

Critics and some usually advocates of the president continue to come down very hard on him for his prayer breakfast remarks that focused on barbaric acts Christians committed nearly one-thousand years ago instead of calling on the Muslim community to band together and denounce with a unified voice those who have hijacked their faith. The president instead felt it necessary to remind Christians of the shortcomings of their ancestors.

Obama has decided that the world is ganging up on Islam and it’s his job to defend it. I’ve got a news flash for you, Mr. President – Every day more people around the globe advocate genocide of the Jewish people – a modern day crusade that is led by Islamists and Europeans who have adopted the 1933 German mindset.

As president of the United States, his concern for the safety of the Muslim community here in America would be understandable if they were under attack. But they haven’t been. There are just as many, If not more, vocal critics of Jews and Christians – mostly for Progressive political reasons – than of Muslims.

The Left’s fear of being labeled Islamophobic is so extreme that they have been shamefully silent over the horrors women and gays experience under Islamic – Sharia law. Their tolerance of gays being tortured and hung by cranes in Iran and women being beheaded on the streets of Saudi Arabia defies civilization and defines hypocrisy.

Progressive thinking was exposed earlier this week when the President himself and members of his administration wouldn’t refer to the murder of four Jews in a Paris Kosher deli as an act of anti-Semitism. In the case of Mr. Obama it is being excused by most as a gaffe and I agree with them. So where is the apology? Jews worldwide are waiting for a simple “I’m sorry” that will never come.

State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki, whose statements during the Israel/Hamas war beckons the question, did she study communications at Hamas University? And White House press secretary Josh Earnest defended the President at news conferences claiming non-Jews were shopping at a Jewish place of business on the eve of the Jewish Sabbath and the murder of four Jews was just a random event.

Those two later clarified their remarks via Twitter. No apology issued.

This administration has been well-trained to never point the finger at the blatant Jew-hatred of radical Islam and their contempt for gays, women and minorities. Political correctness has shifted blame further away from Islamic fundamentalism with every attack – often resulting in the asinine concept that the Israel/Palestinian conflict is the source of Muslim angst.

Obama needs to finally accept, indeed celebrate the decency of America. Your citizens are not advocating violence toward their Muslim neighbors, Mr. President.  But only you seem to not get that. 

But his absence of resolve to defeat Islamic extremism has made him a sideline participant in the eyes of the world. Our allies don’t trust him to have their back and why should they?

The world has been observing and cheering Obama’s cold shoulder toward Israel and this past week only reassured Israel detractors. But even countries that publicly revile the Jewish State understand that Israel is the vanguard in the war against terrorism.

Obama and his administration’s behavior consistently send the wrong message. But his words will now be used as a recruitment tool for ISIS, Al Qaeda and Hamas – reminding young Muslims how Christianity treated them a millennium ago.

You can’t win hearts and minds when your message reminds them why they hate you. That makes you relevant for the wrong reasons.

Miller is executive director of the Salomon Center.