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Right Analysis | Right Hooks | Right Opinion
Patriot Headlines | Grassroots Commentary
December 7, 2015 
THE FOUNDATION
"National defense is one of the cardinal duties of a statesman." —John Adams, 1815
FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
By Mark Alexander
"If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known that we are at all times ready for war." —George Washington, 1793
Today is the anniversary of the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, "a date which will live in infamy," as Franklin Roosevelt noted then.
The 9/11 Islamist attack on our homeland 60 years later was no less brutal, targeted primarily civilians, and rightly resulted in a war on two primary fronts, Afghanistan and Iraq. In addition to those major warfronts, President George W. Bush initiated clandestine strikes against Jihad terrorists around the world.
His objective was not only to crush terrorist power bases but to keep the fight on their turf.
After launching strikes against al-Qa'ida targets, Bush addressed the nation on 21 September 2001, saying, "Tonight we are a country awakened to danger and called to defend freedom. Our grief has turned to anger, and anger to resolution. Whether we bring our enemies to justice, or bring justice to our enemies, justice will be done. ... From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime. ... As long as the United States of America is determined and strong, this will not be an age of terror; this will be an age of liberty, here and across the world."
Unfortunately, as we have warned on the pages of The Patriot Post for the last seven years, Barack Obama's political retreat from Islamic terror warfronts, predictably, provided a vacuum that was quickly filled by a more heinous metastasizing terrorist regime, the Islamic State.
On Sunday night, in a rare Oval Office address to the nation, Obama delivered some crafty teleprompted remarks on the most significant homeland attack on Americans since 9/11 — a coordinated Islamist attack on an office Christmas party last week, just hours after Obama claimed, "ISIL is not going to pose an existential threat to us."
Notably, the brutal Islamist attack in Paris three weeks earlier occurred just hours after Obama claimed, "We've contained them." And it's no small irony that the last time Obama addressed the nation on a Sunday night was his announcement that our military operators killed Osama bin Laden.
So, I put on high waders Sunday evening so I could slosh through the water hazard of Obama's "JV Team" mulligan, and what follows are some notable excerpts with rebuttal:
Barack Obama: Tonight I want to talk with you about this tragedy, the broader threat of terrorism and how we can keep our country safe. The Patriot Post: Better late than never.
BO: We have no evidence that the killers were directed by a terrorist organization overseas or that they were part of a broader conspiracy here at home.
TP: The list of intervened Islamist attacks and those that have been successful have grown rapidly under Obama. Take NO comfort in the assertion they were not "directed by a terrorist organization." Anyone with Islamist predispositions and access to the Internet IS part of a "broader conspiracy."
BO: [The San Bernardino attackers] had gone down the dark path of radicalization, embracing a perverted interpretation of Islam.
TP: Actually, there are countless young Muslims in the U.S. who support that "perverted interpretation," but who have not acted on it yet. As FBI Director James Comey recently testified, there are now more than 1,000 active investigations of potentially violent Islamists nationwide.
BO: Over the last few years, however, the terrorist threat has evolved into a new phase.
TP: If by "last few years" Obama means "since our ill-advised retreat from Iraq to fulfill my election promise," then yes.
BO: ...decimating al-Qa'ida... TP: Astoundingly, Obama resurrected and tried to reframe his 2012 re-election campaign mantra!
BO: It is this type of attack that we saw at Fort Hood in 2009, in Chattanooga earlier this year, and now in San Bernardino.
TP: Has Obama finally recognized that the Ft. Hood and Chattanooga attacks were, in fact, "terrorism"?
BO: [Terrorists are turning to] less complicated acts of violence like the mass shootings that are all too common in our society.
TP: No, as noted above, these "less complicated" threats have metastasized over the last seven years under Obama's lack of leadership. Last year, in a column entitled "Islamic Jihad — Target USA," I wrote, "The most likely near-term form of attack against civilians on our turf, will be modeled after the conventional Islamist assaults in the Middle East, bombings and shootings, as we have now seen in Paris, London, Berlin, Sydney, Toronto, Boston, New York and Washington. This type of attack is low tech but effective in terms of instilling public fear with the long-term goal of civil acquiescence." But the ultimate terrorist objective remains what OBL called "American Hiroshima," a nuclear detonation in a U.S. urban center. Obama's "nuke deal" with Iran greatly increased the probability of such an attack.
BO: As commander in chief, I have no greater responsibility than the security of the American people.
TP: As commander in chief, the future cost of Obama's foreign policy failures will be catastrophic. Of course, he intends to invoice the next president with that bill.
BO: Our success won't depend on tough talk, or abandoning our values.
TP: But all Obama has offered is "talk," such as his "red line" with Syria. And, as I wrote recently, he is certainly not the arbiter of "our values."
BO: If Congress believes, as I do, that we are at war with ISIL, it should go ahead and vote to authorize the continued use of military force against these terrorists. TP: Obama actually attempted to deflect his foreign policy failures to Congress.
BO: We're working with ... our Muslim communities here at home, to counter the vicious ideology that ISIL promotes online. ... [Islamists] are thugs and killers, part of a cult of death. And they account for a tiny fraction of ... millions of patriotic Muslim-Americans who reject their hateful ideology. ... It's a real problem that Muslims must confront without excuse.
TP: Name one national or even notable American Muslim leader who has publicly and unequivocally condemned the San Bernardino attack. As I have noted before, it is estimated that 7% of Muslims are "radicalized," but in 1940 fewer than 5% of Germans were Nazis. How did that turn out? And, the day after the San Bernardino attack, Obama's Attorney General Loretta Lynch proclaimed that her primary concern was "anti-Muslim rhetoric."
Predictably, Obama then turned his attention to "mass shootings" in order to promote his gun-control agenda.
BO: Congress should act to make sure no one on a no-fly list is able to buy a gun.
TP: I will defer to Charles Krauthammer on this one: "Look, anything that will keep a gun out of the hands of [Weekly Standard writer] Steve Hayes I think is useful." The good doctor was joking in reference to the fact that Hayes once found himself on a no-fly list, despite the fact that he, like 300,000 others on that list, have no known connection to terrorism at all.
BO: I know there are some who reject any gun-safety measures.
TP: Actually, there are tens of thousands of "gun-safety measures" on federal, state and local books now, but they are mostly unenforced or unenforceable. As George Will observed, most Americans have no intention of approving Obama's efforts to undermine the Second Amendment: "This year on Black Friday ... 185,000 Americans got background checks for firearms. That is a one day record in this country."
In summation, clearly Obama and his minions are the "JV Team."
Washington Post White House correspondent Greg Jaffe conceded, "The absence of big new policy proposals from the president reflects the lack of any low-cost or tidy solutions to ease the concerns of the American people after a string of deadly attacks over the past month."
Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) was unequivocal in his assessment of the threat: "These are people who know exactly what they are doing. They are motivated by ... calls for global Jihad, the defeat of all non-Sunni [people], and the establishment of a global caliphate."
Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mike McCaul (R-TX) said it most succinctly: "The tentacles of ISIL now are not only in Europe but also in the United States."
Obama's shameless attempt to frame the San Bernardino attack as anything other than terrorism is absurd. His recent assertion that "we have a pattern of mass shootings in this country with no parallel anywhere else in the world," is patently false. Not "anywhere else in the world," not in the Middle East, Africa and Asia? In fact, even among Western nations, the U.S. is 8th in mass murder events with firearms. AND, regarding all murders in the U.S., if you are not associated with drugs or gangs, your probability of being murdered is on par with the safest nations in the West.
As for Obama's presumed successor, Hillary Clinton, she insists, "I think it's important to remind ourselves that Islam itself is not our adversary. This is not, and we should not let it become, a clash of civilizations. ... The vast majority of Muslims are on our side of the battle." Again, if 5% of Muslims are not "on our side of the battle," we better re-engage. Of course, as Clinton said right after the Paris attacks, "We're not putting America combat troops back into Syria or Iraq. We are not going to do that. … I cannot conceive of any circumstances where I would agree to [put combat troops on the ground]."
TOP RIGHT HOOKS
Barack Obama isn't the only one making noise about confiscating guns. The New York Times featured its first front-page editorial since 1920 ranting about the "moral outrage and ... national disgrace that civilians can legally purchase weapons designed specifically to kill people with brutal speed and efficiency." Never mind that these guns are not functionally different from nearly all handguns, or that they're barely used in crimes — in 2013, there were 8,454 murders with firearms and just 285 with rifles of any type.
After more irrational fear mongering, including dismissing the fact that gun bans don't work because "at least [other] countries are trying," the Times laid down the gauntlet: "Certain kinds of weapons, like the slightly modified combat rifles used in California, and certain kinds of ammunition, must be outlawed for civilian ownership. It is possible to define those guns in a clear and effective way and, yes, it would require Americans who own those kinds of weapons to give them up for the good of their fellow citizens."
There's a reason molon labe — the Greek phrase meaning "come and take" — is a classic motto of those who cherish their Second (and Fourth and Fifth) Amendment rights. What the Times is calling for, even though the editors would never put it this way, is for heavily armed government agents to forcibly take certain firearms from law-abiding citizens because these New York editors are afraid of them.
Do they have any idea of the bloodshed that would cause? And leftists accuse us of refusing to acknowledge reality.
Speaking before a Muslim lobbying group's 10th anniversary dinner, Attorney General Loretta Lynch vowed to prosecute anyone the federal government deemed too critical of Muslims. "Now obviously this is a country that is based on free speech," Lynch conceded in her remarks before getting to the inevitable "but." She continued, "[B]ut when it edges towards violence, when we see the potential for someone lifting that mantle of anti-Muslim rhetoric ... when we see that we will take action." Lynch is setting up a straw man, just like Barack Obama did on Sunday when he kept insisting "we're not at war with Islam." No one says we are — it's the Left that won't admit radical Islam is a problem. Still, it's an excuse to start prosecuting thought-crime. Lynch's "greatest fear" is the "incredibly disturbing rise of anti-Muslim rhetoric" and she says the San Bernardino massacre "gives us a wonderful opportunity and a wonderful moment to really make significant change." By the way leftist leaders talk, the Islamic State is a secular force devoid of true religion. They obscure the fact that it's a radical form of Islam, and in so doing, they undermine the nation's security.
No, this is not from The Onion. The Huffington Post is protesting the fact that some USAFA "football team members knelt and prayed — ostentatiously, publicly — in the end zone prior to the game," Ret. U.S. Army Col. Lawrence Wilkerson wrote. "They did not, as Christ's disciple Matthew advises, put themselves in a closet; they prayed in front of the world." And then HuffPo compared this to ... religious oppression in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. Apparently, Wilkerson thinks a pre-game prayer is akin to the crucifixions, beheadings and stonings radical Islamists perform in the pursuit of Sharia Law. As a result of a complaint by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, the USAFA is investigating the team. But if the Air Force recived a complaint about a Muslim praying, the person speaking up would probably be the one under scrutiny for a hate crime. This is the same Academy that struck the phrase "so help me God" from the USAFA Cadet Handbook of oaths, as Mark Alexander noted in an essay in September. The Left may try to make an end run on religion in the ranks of the U.S. military, but the individual soldiers are keeping the flame of Liberty and faith burning bright.
Remembering Pearl Harbor
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"December 7, 1941 — a date which will live in infamy — the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. ... Always will we remember the character of the onslaught against us. No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might, will win through to absolute victory. ... With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounded determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph — so help us God." —Franklin D. Roosevelt
On that fateful "Day of Infamy," 74 years ago today, 353 Japanese planes attacked a military target at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, killing 2,390 American servicemen and civilians and wounding 1,282. The attack sank or damaged eight battleships, three cruisers, three destroyers and one minelayer and destroyed 188 aircraft. It took four years and the full military-industrial capability of the United States to defeat Japan.
It is with honor and respect for those who died or suffered terrible injuries that Sunday morning that we should never again fall into the slumber that allowed such a tragedy as Pearl Harbor — or the attack on Sept. 11, 2001 — again.
MORE ORIGINAL PERSPECTIVE
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TOP HEADLINES
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OPINION IN BRIEF
Peggy Noonan: "Republican presidential contestants responded online to the [San Bernardino assault] with the only helpful thing you can say — or do, frankly, from faraway — when a story like this occurs. ... Journalists, bloggers, contrarians and citizens jumped into the fray. Then the U.S. senator, Chris Murphy, came forward rather menacingly. 'Your 'thoughts' should be about steps to take to stop this carnage. Your 'prayers' should be for forgiveness if you do nothing — again.' ... All this immediately won a name: 'prayer shaming.' ... It is hard to pray, much harder than it is to punch out a series of tweets. What actually is irritating about politicians saying they're sending thoughts and prayers is the suspicion you sometimes have that they're not, actually, thinking or praying. ... Why doesn't some thoughtful candidate on the Republican side address the issue of shaming and silencing? ... Why doesn't someone note that you fight bad speech with better speech, you don't try to tape up the mouths of an entire country. The censorship movement is radical. It is starting to make everyone in the country feel harassed and anxious. It is odd to see candidates miss a rising issue that is giving pause to so many Americans. I pray someone will address it. Literally, I just did."
SHORT CUTS
The Gipper: "The challenge of statesmanship is to have the vision to dream of a better, safer world and the courage, persistence, and patience to turn that dream into reality."
Summing it up: "In the last five weeks, to put it in baseball terms, [the Islamic State has] hit for the cycle. They have a major attack that they conceived and directed in Rocca, that's Paris; they've had an attack that one of their affiliates has done, that's the Russian airliner in the Sinai; and they've had an inspired attack here in the homeland, that's San Bernardino. ISIS is on a roll here. ... While those three attacks have our attention, it's the tip of the iceberg in terms of what they're doing across Africa and in the Middle East." —former CIA deputy director Michael Morell
For the record: "[Barack Obama] was demagogic on what he called, misleadingly, the 'no fly list,' suggesting that there is no argument for letting suspected terrorists buy guns. In truth, the terrorist-watch list that congressional Democrats want to use to restrict gun rights is much broader than the no-fly list; there is no due process for the people on it; and the people on it are in no serious sense 'suspected terrorists,' and the administration has no plans to treat them as such for purposes beyond restricting gun rights." —Ramesh Ponnuru
Dezinformatsia: "They were two hate-filled, bigoted municipal employees interacting in one department. Now 13 innocent people are dead in unspeakable carnage. One man spent his free time writing frightening, NRA-loving, hate-filled screeds on Facebook about the other's religion. The other man quietly stewed and brewed his bigotry, collecting the kind of arsenal that the Facebook poster would have envied. What they didn't realize is that except for their different religions they were in many ways similar men who even had the same job." —New York Daily News' Linda Stasi comparing San Bernardino victim Nicholas Thalasinos, a conservative Christian/messianic Jew, to Islamic jihadi Syed Farook
Non Compos Mentis: "I think I can't say definitively right now what led either of these two people [Syed and his wife] to pick up guns and become murderers." —Attorney General Loretta Lynch (Oh yes, it's quite a mystery...)
Late-night humor: "It's come out that last year, a man was able to get past the Secret Service and speak with President Obama by pretending to be a Congressman. The Secret Service realized he wasn't a Congressman because he was willing to be seen with President Obama." —Conan O'Brien
Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis!
Managing Editor Nate Jackson
Join us in daily prayer for our Patriots in uniform — Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen — standing in harm's way in defense of Liberty, and for their families.
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