In the wake of last week’s Islamic State (IS) attack in Brussels, the president called on American to exhibit “resilience” and “strength” in the face of terror, and went on to set an example, in his own judgment, by attending a baseball game in Havana with Raul Castro. Matthew Continetti notes a previous comment by Obama favorably comparing Israelis’ fortitude in the face of terrorism to Americans’ “panic”:
What a low view of the American people is expressed in [this comparison]—and what a backhanded compliment of Israel. For there is no “panic” gripping America other than the desire for the president to treat the problem of IS and Islamic terrorism more seriously than he has done. And Israel’s response to Palestinian terrorism goes far beyond “resilience” in the face of suicide bombs and rocket attacks—to include a global campaign against terror networks, the forward deployment of forces in the West Bank, and retaliatory offensives against Hizballah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza that the president and his multilateral friends are always so quick to criticize and bring to an end.
As the threat of Islamic radicalism has grown and the lands under its dominion have expanded, President Obama has fallen into the role of the hapless diplomat. He is far more interested in constraining American power in a shortsighted effort not to repeat the supposed mistakes of his predecessor than in unleashing the full might of American power and leading a serious and sustained international effort to deny IS legitimacy by depriving it of safe haven.
Read more on Washington Free Beacon: http://freebeacon.com/columns/our-secretary-general-in-chief/