He never even used the term the "Islamic State," calling our very serious enemy "ISIL" instead. He insisted that "in Iraq and Syria, American leadership -- including our military power -- is stopping ISIL’s advance," even though at that point the Islamic State had essentially doubled its territorial gains over the course of 2014, was slaughtering Muslims, engaged in genocide against Christians and Yazidis, and had recently seized Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq.
What's more, Mr. Obama insisted that the mortal threat facing the American people wasn't from a nuclear Iran or a genocidal Islamic State. Rather, he said that "no challenge -- no challenge -- poses a greater threat to future generations than climate change."
Even by August 28, 2015, after the Islamic State had seized more than one-third of the territory of Iraq and James Foley, an American journalist, had been beheaded by ISIS, the President admitted that
“we don’t have a strategy yet” to defeat ISIS.
In November of last year, the President insisted in November that his policy had
“contained” ISIS. The next day came the terror attacks in Paris, and soon thereafter the attacks in San Bernardino.
What, then, will the President say on Tuesday night, when he delivers his final State of the Union address?
Will he finally acknowledge the threat of Radical and Apocalyptic Islam?
Will explain them -- and their differences -- to the American people? Will he lay out a comprehensive strategy to actually defeat ISIS?
Most Americans aren't holding their breath for such decisive leadership. In the wake of the attacks in San Bernardino and Paris and in so many other places -- and FBI arrests of at least 80 ISIS loyalists operating here in the homeland -- the American people have lost confidence in President Obama's ability to protect us from the terrorists.
More Americans than ever before now believe the terrorists are winning, and the U.S. is losing the global war with Radical Islam. In fact, a
recent CNN poll found a 17-point jump in the number of Americans who believe the terrorists are winning.
What’s more, the CNN poll reveals that:
- Only 18% of Americans believe that the U.S. and our allies have the upper hand against the terrorists.
- Three-out-of-four Americans (74%) do not believe the United States is doing an effective job in the war against Radical Islamic terrorism.
- Nearly two-out-of-three Americans (64%) specifically disapprove the way President Obama is handling the threat posed by the Islamic State.
The central theme of my recent novels --
The Third Target and
The First Hostage -- is this: “To misunderstand the nature and threat of evil is to risk being blind-sided by it.”
To the extent that President Obama and his senior team continue to fail to truly comprehend the evil we and our allies are facing from Iran and the Islamic State, the more dangerous a year 2016 is likely to be.
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