President Barack Obama is lecturing Americans about why they shouldn’t label radical Islamists as terrorists — as if they are bigots, says Bill Kristol, editor of "The Weekly Standard."
"Why did he feel the need to lecture us all as if we're bigots at heart and he's the one who has to explain to us that we've done some bad things in our life, too?" Kristol said Thursday on "The Steve Malzberg Show" on
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On Wednesday, Obama said he wouldn’t classify the Islamic State (ISIS) and al-Qaida as terrorists powered by "radical Islam" — because it gives them a religious legitimacy. "We are not at war with Islam. We are at war with people who have perverted Islam," the president said.
"Why does he even have to weigh in on this as if he thinks he's a president of a country that's full of people who are just one step from going out and assaulting their neighbors who are Muslims …" Kristol responded.
"In a way, it shows he can't resist being the high-school or even middle-school principal who's trying to teach a lesson to these unruly fellow citizens of his who believe in God and other things and probably don't have the politically correct view of Islam."
Kristol urged swift military action against ISIS, which last weekend slaughtered 21 Egyptian Christians, released a video of the atrocity, and later celebrated in the streets.
"If you look at these video and photos, they're like dozens and maybe a couple of hundred of these ISIS fighters assembled there, doing horrible things, celebrating their atrocities, parading people in the streets and these cages, etc." he said.
"Can't we just bomb them? Can't we like kill scores of them at a time? Wouldn't that be a useful [thing] for other people to kind of join this thing?"
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