John Brennan, President Obama's top advisor on terrorism, has issued a new report. In it he astutely notes that military efforts around the world have reduced Al Qaida's ability to operate effectively on an international scale. He also points out that there is an increasing threat from inside America.
I think that's where the intelligent part of the report ends and the liberal doublespeak and political correctness begins. Mr. Brennan suggests that the United States' approach to the threat of Mumbai-style attacks on domestic urban centers and Beslan-esque seiges at our public schools should be "education".
Mind you, this isn't an education campaign aimed at Muslim extremists or Muslim fence-sitters, teaching them about the value of personal liberty or the greatness of the American way of life or the fact that America allows true Muslims a greater chance to express their religiosity and develop a personal relationship with Allah than any other country on earth.
No. It's an education campaign aimed at members of communities. It wants to teach us about the local, state and national resources that are available to us to keep us safe.
Really?!
Really.
In fact, Mr. Brennan goes as far as to assert that his education campaign would be modeled after those used to reduce gang violence, sex crimes and school shootings! Heaven help us if that approach is also as effective.
Even more disturbing to me than the naivete of Mr. Brennan's community outreach program is the fact that he lumps all "extremism" into one category of "potential terrorists".
Now, I know that there are extreme vegetarians and extreme animal lovers and extremely devout Buddhists and Christians and Jews. There are extreme Republicans and extreme Democrats. And I know that sometimes PETA-types burn down mink barns and Sierra Club-types spike old-growth trees. I know that sometimes even a Timothy McVeigh-type does something horrific.
But those crimes don't rise to the level of systematic terror with the goal of destroying the American way of life and enforcing a system of belief and behavior that is antithetical to all that is good and decent.
Eco-terrorism and militia-oriented terrorism have precise targets. For animal rights terrorists, it's the evil corporations abusing our friends. For tree huggers, its the evil corporations abusing our friends. For Timothy McVeigh it was the evil federal government that abused his friends at Waco and Ruby Ridge.
But for Islamic terrorists their target is not so precise. Or maybe it is exactly so precise. It is not any entity abusing their friends. Witness the lack of real support for the Palestinian cause among the Muslim world.
Their target is anyone who does not agree with them. Their goal is to force submission and to annihilate dissent. Their target is the adult, the child, the elderly, the infirm, the homosexual, the woman, the mentally ill, the Christian, the Jew, the pagan, the corporatist, the capitalist, the bureaucrat, the monarch, the president, the peasant, the infidel.
I think that's where the intelligent part of the report ends and the liberal doublespeak and political correctness begins. Mr. Brennan suggests that the United States' approach to the threat of Mumbai-style attacks on domestic urban centers and Beslan-esque seiges at our public schools should be "education".
Mind you, this isn't an education campaign aimed at Muslim extremists or Muslim fence-sitters, teaching them about the value of personal liberty or the greatness of the American way of life or the fact that America allows true Muslims a greater chance to express their religiosity and develop a personal relationship with Allah than any other country on earth.
No. It's an education campaign aimed at members of communities. It wants to teach us about the local, state and national resources that are available to us to keep us safe.
Really?!
Really.
In fact, Mr. Brennan goes as far as to assert that his education campaign would be modeled after those used to reduce gang violence, sex crimes and school shootings! Heaven help us if that approach is also as effective.
Even more disturbing to me than the naivete of Mr. Brennan's community outreach program is the fact that he lumps all "extremism" into one category of "potential terrorists".
Now, I know that there are extreme vegetarians and extreme animal lovers and extremely devout Buddhists and Christians and Jews. There are extreme Republicans and extreme Democrats. And I know that sometimes PETA-types burn down mink barns and Sierra Club-types spike old-growth trees. I know that sometimes even a Timothy McVeigh-type does something horrific.
But those crimes don't rise to the level of systematic terror with the goal of destroying the American way of life and enforcing a system of belief and behavior that is antithetical to all that is good and decent.
Eco-terrorism and militia-oriented terrorism have precise targets. For animal rights terrorists, it's the evil corporations abusing our friends. For tree huggers, its the evil corporations abusing our friends. For Timothy McVeigh it was the evil federal government that abused his friends at Waco and Ruby Ridge.
But for Islamic terrorists their target is not so precise. Or maybe it is exactly so precise. It is not any entity abusing their friends. Witness the lack of real support for the Palestinian cause among the Muslim world.
Their target is anyone who does not agree with them. Their goal is to force submission and to annihilate dissent. Their target is the adult, the child, the elderly, the infirm, the homosexual, the woman, the mentally ill, the Christian, the Jew, the pagan, the corporatist, the capitalist, the bureaucrat, the monarch, the president, the peasant, the infidel.
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