I think that the President of the United States and his mouthpiece Josh Earnest, could use a refresher course on how to identify ducks given by my three year old daughter. In other words, if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck and walks like a duck… it may be… a duck.
Even after the dual massacres in Paris this week, the President could not commit himself to uttering two simple words - “radical Islam” – and could not show his face to march with other world leaders to protest against it.
It’s not a big surprise. In 2009, Major Nidal Hassan murdered 13 of his fellow soldiers, and wounded 28 more, while yelling “Allahu Akbar”. The government classified the shooting as an act of “workplace violence”.
Rather than focus on “radical Islam”, the Obama Administration will be hosting a summit on countering violent extremism. In Josh Earnest’s words, the summit is “made even more imperative in light of recent, tragic attacks in Ottowa, Sydney and Paris.”
What do those attacks in Ottowa, Sydney and Paris have in common? Let us try and figure it out. Perhaps the Parisian Buddists are rioting again over the cartoons depicting the Dalai Lama, by murdering magazine staff and people shopping at Kosher grocery stores. Or the Mormon extremists who took over a coffee shop in Sydney and threatened their hostages’ lives. Or, the Amish have had enough of those “Amish jokes” and attacked Canadian Parliament to let everyone know that they are not happy. Maybe, just maybe, that’s what Earnest must have been talking about when he was talking about the summit countering “violent extremism”.
It’s almost comical if this denial of reality were not so deadly. Radical Islam has declared war on anyone and everyone who disagrees with their worldview. Whether attacks are orchestrated by Al-Qeada or by ‘lone wolves’, the results are the same.
Perhaps a review would help. If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck and shouts ‘Allahu Akbar’ as it shoots up a room full of political cartoonists, it may very well be radical Islam at work.
