President Obama persistently refuses to utilize the term “radical Islam” in connection with the violent Islamic State, aka ISIS, jihadis who wreaked havoc on Paris last Friday.
Instead, as he did after the 2012 attack in Benghazi that resulted in the death of four Americans, our commander in chief insists on describing these radical Islamic jihadis as “violent extremists.”
Neutral terms such as “violent extremists” betray a willful blindness to our enemies. This blindness, according to Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War,” will gravely impede our ability to win wars, whether our enemies call themselves Islamic State, ISIS, al-Qaida, or the Muslim Brotherhood.
Coincidentally, the Monday after last Friday’s deadly ISIS attacks in Paris, the Gospel message proclaimed at every Catholic Mass all over the world was about blindness:
As Jesus approached Jericho a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging,
and hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what was happening.
They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.”
He shouted, “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!”
The people walking in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent,
but he kept calling out all the more, “Son of David, have pity on me!”
Then Jesus stopped and ordered that he be brought to him;
and when he came near, Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?”
He replied, “Lord, please let me see.”
Jesus told him, “Have sight; your faith has saved you.”
He immediately received his sight and followed him, giving glory to God.
When they saw this, all the people gave praise to God. (Luke 18:35-43)
Meanwhile, on the same Monday the president of the United States insisted at a
press conference in Antalya, Turkey, that, “to the degree that anyone would equate the terrible actions that took place in Paris with the views of Islam, those kinds of stereotypes are counterproductive. They’re wrong.
"They will lead, I think, to greater recruitment into terrorist organizations over time if this becomes somehow defined as a Muslim problem as opposed to a terrorist problem.”
The president is dead wrong on the “terrorist problem.” Terrorism is merely a tactic.
Other tactics of our enemies include political warfare and influence operations, to name a few. If we cannot even coherently define our enemies who engage in terrorism, how can we hope to win any war against those terrorists?
As explained by the ancient Chinese military philosopher Sun Tzu, “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
The good news is that our Constitution empowers Congress, not the president, “To declare War” (Art. I, Sec. 9). Congress should exercise this power by shedding light where the president refuses to shed it.
That means explaining in plain English to the American people who are these ISIS jihadis — at least one of whom reportedly was a “refugee” from Syria — what motivates them to wage war on us, and how are they related to the Muslim Brotherhood and its front organizations in the United States, including CAIR and ISNA (see my Breitbart
article, “U.S. Court Exposes ISNA as 'Apparatus' of the Muslim Brotherhood (and Hamas): Questions Remain About the Department of Defense Continuing to Rely Upon ISNA to Endorse Chaplains”).
In the fall of 2010, the Supreme Guide of the International Muslim Brotherhood, Mohammed Badie, declared publicly that it is the duty of all Muslims to engage in jihad against the United States and Israel, explaining the need for “raising a jihadi generation that pursues death just as the enemies pursue life . . . the U.S. is now experiencing the beginning of its end, and is heading toward its demise.”
Badie’s declaration foreshadowed the so-called “Arab Spring” of 2011.
Why is it that Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), have in the meantime declared the Muslim Brotherhood a "terrorist group," but the United States has not?
Based on its own writings, the Muslim Brotherhood, just like al-Qaida and ISIS, has declared war — which it calls “civilization jihad” — ongoing influence operations against the principles underlying our Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution.
In the face of what might aptly be called civilization “refu-jihad,” leaders in Congress should muster the courage to exercise their constitutional power “To declare War,” one way or another, and should buck political correctness by identifying not only the ISIS jihadis who wreaked havoc in Paris last Friday, but also the Muslim Brotherhood and its various front organization that are engaging in influence operations in the United States and around the world, as among our “enemies, foreign and domestic.”
Jesus, son of David, have pity on us. May he “please let [us] see,” and may the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit please help us better to know both ourselves and our enemies.
Joseph E. Schmitz served as inspector general of the Dept. of Defense from 2002-2005 and is a Partner in the law firm of Schmitz & Socarras LLP. Read more reports from Joseph E. Schmitz — Click Here Now.
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