Obama’s new clothes

Events have conspired to make President Obama look like a fool, as he did in his obnoxious defense of the higher wisdom of his avoidance of any mention of Islam in connection with the Orlando massacre. Obama’s higher wisdom is not only foolish, it is also lethal. Former NSA analyst and counterintelligence officer John Schindler tacitly makes this point in his Observer column “The road to Orlando.” Schindler observes:

During Mr. Obama’s first term, there was a thorough purge of personnel in the Intelligence Community and the Defense Department who were unwilling to follow the new party line. People were mysteriously reassigned, contracts were suddenly cancelled, meetings were delayed never to be rescheduled. The message was obvious to counterterrorism professionals. As someone who has tried for years to walk a fine line on jihadism—we must be able to discuss political Islam and terrorism without stigmatizing all Muslims—I witnessed this happen, and it was tragically clear what the long-term consequences of this institutionalized unreality would be.

In his remarks earlier this week, I loved Obama’s citation of the advisers with whom he has surrounded himself. Their advice comports with what Schindler calls “the new party line.” They wouldn’t be where they are if it didn’t. Yet Obama thinks their agreement with him should be highly persuasive to us.

Here is how Obama put it: “Not once has an adviser of mine said, ‘Man, if we really use that phrase [radical Islam], we’re going to turn this whole thing around.’ Not once.”

Some might say that’s the problem. Some might think of the story regarding the emperor’s new clothes. For us, it’s Obama’s new clothes. For Obama, it’s case closed.

“Fundamental transformation,” and all that. Obama’s enforcement of the silence regarding Islam is only one aspect of the hole in which we find ourselves, and not the biggest part, but it is telling.

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