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defrogSo this happened on the internet.
“What we’ve all been thinking”, apparently, is that Muslims are evil and the enemy of America, and that Obama’s strategy to fight them is to hug them until they love us, and that strategy is obviously failing because if it wasn’t, those five armed forces members in Chattanooga would still be alive, and we are all as tired of it as Tomi Lahren, because a REAL President would go over to the Middle East and kill all the Muslims us in the name of our Lord.
So by “we”, I think they mean “conservatives who hate Obama and Muslims because what’s the difference, really”.
Okay. Not just them. I’ve had a few friends I wouldn’t normally classify as Republicans forward this. They’re more representative of the “I’m from Tennessee and I support the military and my country, so I’m really upset this happened in MY state, thanks Obama” constituency.
Anyway, yes, the video has gone viral. I haven’t watched it, but I’ve seen the money quotes from it. So here’s some obligatory commentary in the popular numbered-bullet-point format.
1. The rant appears to be a rehashed update of every GOP talking point about (1) Muslims and the Middle East since 9/11, and (2) Obama ever since he launched his 2008 POTUS campaign. Even the “put the fear of God in their desert” angle was covered by Ann Coulter 14 years ago.
2. It also assumes that the attack in Chattanooga is a direct result of ISIS’ current activities and Obama’s “half baked” strategy to stop them. In other words, Muhammad Youssuf Abdulazeez was taking orders direct from ISIS (though there’s no evidence of this right now) and if ISIS were being defeated, this attack never would have happened.
3. It assumes further that Obama’s strategy to date has been “jihadist-friendly”. In what way, exactly? Because we haven’t deported every Muslim in the US to Gitmo? We haven’t nuked Iran already? I don’t know what this even means.
4. Her big solution: “Let’s show them what the United States looks like up close and personal. Show them what a B1 bomber looks like flying overhead; show them what they’re messing with.”
Because if there’s one thing Obama hasn’t been doing, it’s bombing ISIS targets. Except when he has. Which doesn’t count because Obama. Also, since many ISIS soldiers are from Iraq, I’m pretty sure they already have a good idea of who they’re messing with.
Unless Lahren is advocating a nuclear option. Which is not only inhuman and insane, but also lazy.
5. The fact that the video went viral does perhaps indicate that a lot of people who aren’t kneejerk Obama/Muslim haters are unhappy with the way Obama is handling ISIS, especially if it’s resulting in recruiting centers (well, one) being shot up.
However, I get the feeling that displeasure is rooted in remarkably simplistic ideas about terrorism in general and ISIS in particular. Namely: if we bomb the bejeezus out of ISIS, we can end terrorism.
Think of it this way: the Chattanooga shooter carried out the easiest kind of attack there is in America. We get mass shootings in America every week. We got one while I was typing this post. The vast majority of them since 9/11 were not carried out by jihadists. That illustrates how small the problem is, and how unlikely it is to happen again.
So either these people haven’t really thought the situation through, or they have but see it more as an opportunity to grandstand and make some half-assed point about Open Carry and Obama won’t let soldiers protect themselves so it’s up to us and doesn’t Obama just suck.
Even the Army has said, “Thanks, but we’d rather we be guarded by people with, you know, training.”
(NOTE: A few people on my Facebook feed have claimed that the civilian guards in their neighborhood are actual combat vets, not redneck wannabes. With respect, that doesn’t mean they have proper training for that specific situation. I’m pretty sure the rules of engagement in a war zone in a foreign country are way different than a shopping center in America.)
7. I have five American dollars that says the same people who support civilian guards at recruitment centers will use the fact that no other recruitments centers have been attacked since Chattanooga as proof that they’re an effective deterrent against attacks.
8. Probably my biggest grievance against Lahren’s rant is that it’s essentially an attempt to restoke post-9/11 fear and loathing disguised as righteous anger. Remember what that led to – disproportionate violence, mass round-ups, restrictions of civil liberties, Guantanamo Bay, torture and irrational paranoia every time you see a Muslim-looking person on yr plane or when some Muslim group suggests building a mosque in yr city.
No thanks. If yr letting terrorism scare you into doing things you would find reprehensible if dictatorships did them, guess what – the terrorists are winning.
No emo,
This is dF
“What we’ve all been thinking”, apparently, is that Muslims are evil and the enemy of America, and that Obama’s strategy to fight them is to hug them until they love us, and that strategy is obviously failing because if it wasn’t, those five armed forces members in Chattanooga would still be alive, and we are all as tired of it as Tomi Lahren, because a REAL President would go over to the Middle East and kill all the Muslims us in the name of our Lord.
So by “we”, I think they mean “conservatives who hate Obama and Muslims because what’s the difference, really”.
Okay. Not just them. I’ve had a few friends I wouldn’t normally classify as Republicans forward this. They’re more representative of the “I’m from Tennessee and I support the military and my country, so I’m really upset this happened in MY state, thanks Obama” constituency.
Anyway, yes, the video has gone viral. I haven’t watched it, but I’ve seen the money quotes from it. So here’s some obligatory commentary in the popular numbered-bullet-point format.
1. The rant appears to be a rehashed update of every GOP talking point about (1) Muslims and the Middle East since 9/11, and (2) Obama ever since he launched his 2008 POTUS campaign. Even the “put the fear of God in their desert” angle was covered by Ann Coulter 14 years ago.
2. It also assumes that the attack in Chattanooga is a direct result of ISIS’ current activities and Obama’s “half baked” strategy to stop them. In other words, Muhammad Youssuf Abdulazeez was taking orders direct from ISIS (though there’s no evidence of this right now) and if ISIS were being defeated, this attack never would have happened.
3. It assumes further that Obama’s strategy to date has been “jihadist-friendly”. In what way, exactly? Because we haven’t deported every Muslim in the US to Gitmo? We haven’t nuked Iran already? I don’t know what this even means.
4. Her big solution: “Let’s show them what the United States looks like up close and personal. Show them what a B1 bomber looks like flying overhead; show them what they’re messing with.”
Because if there’s one thing Obama hasn’t been doing, it’s bombing ISIS targets. Except when he has. Which doesn’t count because Obama. Also, since many ISIS soldiers are from Iraq, I’m pretty sure they already have a good idea of who they’re messing with.
Unless Lahren is advocating a nuclear option. Which is not only inhuman and insane, but also lazy.
5. The fact that the video went viral does perhaps indicate that a lot of people who aren’t kneejerk Obama/Muslim haters are unhappy with the way Obama is handling ISIS, especially if it’s resulting in recruiting centers (well, one) being shot up.
However, I get the feeling that displeasure is rooted in remarkably simplistic ideas about terrorism in general and ISIS in particular. Namely: if we bomb the bejeezus out of ISIS, we can end terrorism.
No one’s really saying it that way. In fact, most of the people I know who have forwarded it aren’t really offering any detailed alternatives to the strategy he’s pursuing. But given the insane sociopolitical complexities of the Middle East in general and ISIS in particular, dealing with ISIS isn’t as simple as just bombing them all with American exceptionalism.
He said the bombing campaign should not be compared to past wars because the adversary is neither a state nor an established army.
“The comparison is not valid,” he said, adding: “This enemy wrapped itself around the civilian population before we even started.”
The military has never had a blueprint for how to use airstrikes in such a setting, he said.
“With this enemy we have to be available 24/7 with coalition air power, differentiate them from the population and go after them every time we find them. It’s an order of magnitude more difficult than what we’ve done before.”
6. Those armed civilians “protecting” recruitment centers? That might be a great idea if there were an actual organized plot to attack all the recruitment centers, instead of just one guy attacking one center who is now dead and therefore unlikely to attack more of them. And even then, it’s not really that great an idea. “The comparison is not valid,” he said, adding: “This enemy wrapped itself around the civilian population before we even started.”
The military has never had a blueprint for how to use airstrikes in such a setting, he said.
“With this enemy we have to be available 24/7 with coalition air power, differentiate them from the population and go after them every time we find them. It’s an order of magnitude more difficult than what we’ve done before.”
Think of it this way: the Chattanooga shooter carried out the easiest kind of attack there is in America. We get mass shootings in America every week. We got one while I was typing this post. The vast majority of them since 9/11 were not carried out by jihadists. That illustrates how small the problem is, and how unlikely it is to happen again.
So either these people haven’t really thought the situation through, or they have but see it more as an opportunity to grandstand and make some half-assed point about Open Carry and Obama won’t let soldiers protect themselves so it’s up to us and doesn’t Obama just suck.
Even the Army has said, “Thanks, but we’d rather we be guarded by people with, you know, training.”
(NOTE: A few people on my Facebook feed have claimed that the civilian guards in their neighborhood are actual combat vets, not redneck wannabes. With respect, that doesn’t mean they have proper training for that specific situation. I’m pretty sure the rules of engagement in a war zone in a foreign country are way different than a shopping center in America.)
7. I have five American dollars that says the same people who support civilian guards at recruitment centers will use the fact that no other recruitments centers have been attacked since Chattanooga as proof that they’re an effective deterrent against attacks.
8. Probably my biggest grievance against Lahren’s rant is that it’s essentially an attempt to restoke post-9/11 fear and loathing disguised as righteous anger. Remember what that led to – disproportionate violence, mass round-ups, restrictions of civil liberties, Guantanamo Bay, torture and irrational paranoia every time you see a Muslim-looking person on yr plane or when some Muslim group suggests building a mosque in yr city.
No thanks. If yr letting terrorism scare you into doing things you would find reprehensible if dictatorships did them, guess what – the terrorists are winning.
No emo,
This is dF
no subject
on 2015-07-25 03:46 pm (UTC)