Striking near Disney World in Orlando, Florida today, 29-year-old U.S. citizen radicalized Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS] terrorist Omar Mateen mowed down 50 revelers with an AR-15 assault rifle, wounding 53 at Pulse gay nightclub. FBI officials confirmed Mateen’s allegiance to ISIS, admitting he was on the terrorism watch-list before traveling from Port St. Lucie, Florida to Orlando to commit his mayhem. How the FBI cleared Mateen before he eventually lashed out is anyone’s guess. Since Obama placed his left hand on the bible Jan. 20, 2009, swearing his allegiance to the Constitution, he abandoned his duty to fight Islamic terrorism. So consumed with political correctness and campaign promise to end the Iraq and Afghan Wars, Obama deliberately abrogated the U.S. war on terror, looking for the earliest possible time to pull U.S. forces out of Iraq.
When Obama ended the Iraq War Dec. 15, 2011, he didn’t consider the repercussions of leaving Iraq undefended. Miffed because of former Iraqi Prime Minister Nour al-Maliki’s refusal to grant immunity to U.S. forces, Obama completed his withdrawal of all combat troops, leaving Iraq vulnerable to a terrorist takeover. It wasn’t long before ISIS emerged as a major fighting force, decimating the Iraq military, seizing most of the army’s U.S.-made military equipment and running a blitzkrieg through Iraq and Syria, seizing some 30% of its sovereign land. For the past two years, ISIS has run wild, with only token opposition by the U.S. and its allies. Declaring a caliphate June 29, 2014, ISIS Emir Abu Bakr al-Bagdadi recruited, brainwashed and deployed a radical Islamic army. Seizing oil rich Mosul, Iraq June 4, 2014 and Raqqa, Syria, Aug. 24, 2014, Obama did almost nothing.
Obama’s retreat from an active terrorist policy invited Army Maj. Nidal Malek Hasan to lash out Nov. 5, 2009 at a Fort Hood, Texas Army deployment center, killing 13, injuring 33. It took weeks for Obama to admit Hasan was radicalized by al-Qaeda’s Yemen-based terror chief Anwar al-Awlaki. When the Chechen-born Tsarnaev brothers detonated two pressure-cooker bombs at the April 15, 2013 Boston Marathon, Obama continued to make excuses, comparing the attack to other lone-wolf acts of mass murder. Yesterday’s attack at an Orlando gay nightclub prompted Obama to speak ambiguously about the incident. “What is clear is he [Mateen] was a person filled with hatred,” said Obama, not admitting that Mateen carried out an ISIS “fatwa” [religious order] to kill infidels during Ramadan, especially Americans and other Westerners. Obama refuses to call the attacks Islamic terrorism.
When ISIS struck Paris Oct. 13, 2015 killing 137 at multiple locations, Obama and French President Francois Hollande talked tough but did nothing to ratchet up pressure on ISIS. When ISIS struck again in Brussels, March 22, killing 37, injuring 368, Western powers did little to retaliate. Since Obama took office, ISIS, al-Qaeda and other Wahhabi-inspired Sunni terror groups have no reason to fear the U.S. Obama viewed the terrorism fight as a law enforcement issue, not one for the U.S. military. Instead of mobilizing U.S. forces to go after ISIS, Obama hid behind weak coalitions in Iraq and Syria, allowing ISIS to run wild, now threatening U.S. and Europe with unending terror attacks. “The shooter targeted a nightclub where people came together to be with friends to dance and sing—to live,” said Brack, spewing the most off-base platitudes about lone-wolf attacks.
Victims and families don’t need condolences from the commander-in-chief, they need a coherent counter-terrorism strategy. Letting ISIS run wild for years in Syria and Iraq has now come back to bite the U.S. and Europe. Whatever the problems with misanthrope-mass killers, like Columbine, Newtown, Conn., Tucson, Ariz. or Charleston, S.C., they’re different from radical Islam’s assault on humanity. Misanthrope mass-killers don’t hold sovereign land in foreign countries. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) echoed Obama’s feckless response calling for more gun control. While there’s nothing wrong with sensible gun control, there’s something very wrong with ignoring the pressing threat of radical Islam in the U.S. and Europe. Obama showed no wake-up call watching 14 U.S. citizens massacred by to two Islamic radicals Dec. 2, 2015 in San Bernardino, Calif.—refusing to call them Islamic radicals.
Obama’s failed Islamic terror policy stems from a retreat to a pre-Sept. 11 mindset, seeing law enforcement—not the U.S. military—as leading the charge against domestic and foreign terrorism. Today’s Orlando terror attack cries out for Obama to start taking the war on terrorism seriously. Whether he likes it or not, the U.S. military will have to play a more active role, including dreaded ground troops, in defeating ISIS. Letting ISIS run wild for the last five years, Obama has invited more terror attacks on U.S. and European soil. Obama’s Syria policy, backed by Democratic presumptive nominee former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, seeks to topple the government of Bashar al-Assad, the exact same goal as ISIS and al-Qaeda. Backing Saudi’s proxy war in Syria, Obama pits himself against Russian President Vladimir Putin, leaving the U.S. more vulnerable to terrorism.
