Tuesday, July 7, 2015
From: Gary L. Bauer
An Obama Truism
President Obama made a rare visit to the Pentagon yesterday for a briefing with the nation’s top military commanders. During his speech, he addressed the fight against ISIS, but did not articulate a strategy for defeating the Islamists. Nor did he announce any significant changes to his existing strategy, which is obviously not working — unless you are ISIS.
As he often does, the president made a number of pronouncements which sounded authoritative. It reminds me of that great Reagan quote, “The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they’re ignorant; it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so.”
I wonder what the Pentagon brass was thinking when Obama said this: “Ideologies are not defeated with guns; they’re defeated by better ideas — a more attractive and more compelling vision.” Really? Would someone please give him a history book!
We didn’t go into WWII worried about why the Germans embraced a mass murderer. We weren’t fretting about offending the sensibilities of Imperial Japan. We defeated the ideologies of Nazism and Japanese totalitarianism with bombs and bullets. But Obama appears to be embracing the meme that ISIS is gaining recruits primarily because of a lack of jobs or alienation from broader society.
So let me translate: If Abdul doesn’t see enough job opportunities, choice number two is to join a group that sells women into sex slavery, beheads civilians, burns prisoners alive and blows up historic religious sites. Who knew that these were the only two choices in the Islamic world?
Following Obama’s illogic, the Islamic Republic of Iran spreads terror all over the world, attempts to assassinate foreign ambassadors in Washington, threatens to wipe Israel off the map and leads frenzied crowds in chants of “Death to America” because the people leading the government lack sufficient economic opportunities.
No Deal Today
Nuclear negotiators meeting in Vienna failed to reach a deal regarding Iran’s nuclear program. Yet another deadline has been missed, but that won’t stop the talking from continuing. Various reports suggest that Friday may be the new deadline.
It should be clear to everyone at this point that the Iranians are not negotiating in good faith. But if you need evidence, consider this: Reuters reported last night that the latest “snag” in the talks is Iran’s demand that sanctions on its ballistic missile program be eliminated.
According to the Associated Press, “Current intelligence estimates put the Iranians only two to three months away from amassing enough material for a nuclear warhead.” And now the Iranians want to kick their ballistic missile program into high gear too. What for?
Perhaps former Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani had something in mind when he said yesterday that the “[fake] and temporary Israeli entity” would soon be wiped off the map.
Yet, we’re supposed to believe that Iran’s nuclear program is for peaceful purposes and that Obama, who traded five Taliban leaders for one deserter, can be trusted to negotiate a deal that will prevent this radical regime from building nuclear weapons.
We and our pro-Israel allies, including Christians United for Israel and the Emergency Committee for Israel, will do everything we can to stop this bad deal from passing Congress. But the radical left is already attempting to browbeat elected officials into sacrificing the security of our country and our ally Israel.
One left-wing group is threatening to “punish” congressional liberals unless they “support the deal, and pledge to defend it from attacks in Congress.”
Sanctuaries For Conservatives?
San Francisco is making headlines for its status as a sanctuary city — a city that refuses to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement efforts. Last week, an illegal immigrant, with seven felony convictions and who had been deported five times, shot and killed a young San Francisco woman while she was walking with her father.
Ponder this: What about a sanctuary city for conservative values?
Imagine if some city in red state America — Little Rock, Arkansas, Dallas, Texas, or Bowling Green, Kentucky — decided that it wanted to be a sanctuary city for unborn children and refused to grant business licenses to abortion clinics.
What if a city decided that it was going to be a sanctuary city for the Ten Commandments and displayed them in schools, libraries and the county courthouse?
What if a city decided that it was important for children to have mothers and fathers, declared itself to be a sanctuary city for normal marriage and refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples?
How do you think the left and the media would react to that kind of selective enforcement of the law? Just a thought.
Faith Under Fire
Pro-family conservatives have repeatedly warned that the left-wing agenda represents a “clear and present danger” to religious liberty. The ACLU, for example, recently announced that it would no longer defend the Religious Liberty Restoration Act.
With the Supreme Court’s decision redefining marriage, men and women of faith are concerned about their freedom to practice their faith beyond the confines of their church or synagogue. And they are right to be concerned.
During a recent interview on MSNBC Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin suggested that the First Amendment applied to religious institutions but not so much to individuals.
“Certainly the First Amendment says that in institutions of faith that there is absolute power to, you know, to observe deeply held religious beliefs. I don’t think it extends far beyond that,” Baldwin said.
Wow! That kind of ignorance of our basic freedoms is truly frightening. Keep in mind, folks, that Senator Baldwin gets to vote on the judges who sit on our federal courts.
This is just one more reason why men and women of faith must be engaged in the public policy process. Our liberty is at risk.
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