Chill Out!
Our government handlers are earning their paychecks today, particularly in the Big Apple. You think you have a tough job? Just imagine if you had the assignment today of telling agitated citizens that it was perfectly logical and prudent to not quarantine a doctor who had just returned from Africa. . . where he had been treating Ebola patients.
Instead he self-monitored and voluntarily stayed out of crowds. . . except when he rode the subway. . .and when he ate at a restaurant. . . and when he went bowling . . . and had his fiancee over to his apartment (who is also now quarantined, giving her lots of time to think about whether she wants to marry a guy who was this cavalier about putting her at risk).
New York sent out a bevy of health care officials whose main job seemed to be not fighting Ebola but to console, patronize and calm the plebeians known as the American people. "Ebola is not the danger," they said. "Fear is!"
I am surprised they don't all wear hazmat suits to prevent undue contact with us -- the Neanderthals who believe that, when dealing with a deadly disease about which we still don't know all the facts, compulsory quarantine is the time-tested prudent thing to do. It is even more important than bowling.
Those New York officials who were not busy sedating the public over Ebola devoted their energies to assuring us that the poor misunderstood fellow who decided yesterday to bury a hatchet in the skull of a rookie New York cop had absolutely nothing to do with radical Islam or ISIS or the headless grandmother in Oklahoma or the dead baby in Jerusalem killed by a Palestinian jihadist.
Sure, his website attacked Zionists and Christians and defended jihad, his YouTube playlist was loaded with Malcolm X videos, his Facebook page has an image of a Muslim warrior and he said it was better to fight in the name of Allah than to sit around, but that is all circumstantial. Sure, it is true that ISIS has specifically called for attacks on soldiers (see Canada) and on law enforcement. That may seem significant to your poor know-nothing, closet racist, fear-mongering, average U.S. citizen, but trust us, there is nothing to see here.
Move on people! Relax! Chill out! Have a little newly legalized pot and check out the latest Hollywood escapades of your favorite starlet. Everything is under control. Trust me.
The Weak Horse
The headlines around the world are chilling. The front page of today's Washington Post warns us that ISIS has likely used chemical weapons against Iraqi security forces. If confirmed, chemical weapons falling into the hands of terrorists would be a nightmare scenario. In a separate report, David Ignatius informs us that "Iraq and the U.S. are losing ground to the Islamic State."
Even liberal columnist Eugene Robinson piles on, writing that the fight against ISIS is becoming a "dumb war." Robinson adds that it is "necessary" to question "whether Obama's strategy" can achieve his stated objective of "degrading and ultimately destroying" ISIS. As you may recall, I reported two weeks ago that top Pentagon officials had "profound misgivings" about Obama's "pinprick operations."
All of this is not being lost on our enemies. Just consider these remarks by Ali Younesi, a top advisor to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani:
"Obama is the weakest of U.S. presidents. He had humiliating defeats in the region. Under him the Islamic awakening happened. Americans witnessed their greatest defeats in Obama's era: Terrorism expanded, [the] U.S. had huge defeats under Obama [and] that is why they want to compromise with Iran."
The Obama Administration is intentionally keeping its rhetoric muted regarding Iran because it wants to get a deal -- any deal, even a bad one -- on the mullahs' nuclear weapons program. That's why Obama plans to "do everything in his power" to circumvent Congress and the Constitution. But obviously the Iranians feel no such constraints to be diplomatic lest they upset the delicate negotiations.
Think about how this is perceived throughout the Middle East. Osama bin Laden once said that by nature people want to follow the strong horse. Our enemies have looked at Obama and concluded that he is the weak horse.