Reasonable skepticism.
President Obama at a news conference in Antalya, Turkey.
Listen To You Tell Me Texas Friday 11/13/15
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If the president wants us to accept his prescription for dealing with the humanitarian crisis attendant to Syrian refugees, he has an attendant obligation. He is obliged to convince us that he is willing to do whatever it takes to be effective against an ascendant Islamic threat. So far, he has not done so.
The news conference that he gave at the close of the G20 summit in Turkey this past Monday was a disaster. For the first time in his presidency, members of the mainstream media who have been long carrying his water were forced by events to begin asking tough questions. The president’s prickly response to those questions was not comforting.
It is clear that the president is either delusional when it comes to the threat posed by ISIS – and the U.S. response to it – or that he doesn’t care. Either is as bad as the other.
Thus, according to polls, the majority of Americans do not believe that the United States strategy in the Middle East is working. The majority of Americans do not believe that ISIS is “contained,” as the president asserts.
Therefore, the majority of Americans don’t want large numbers of Syrian refugees brought into the country and settled here. It then naturally follows that the majority of the governors of the 50 states say they will not cooperate with the federal government in that effort.
There is nothing unreasonable about any of this. Americans are the most generous, most compassionate people in the world. Our fundamental nature is to relieve human suffering. There is no doubt that hundreds of thousands of our fellow humans are suffering at the hands of ISIS.
But self-preservation trumps charity every time. You won’t convince a majority of Americans to support importing thousands of Syrian refugees so long as Obama’s response to the growing threat of ISIS remains so flaccid. Among the refugees that would come here and be grateful would undoubtedly be incipient terrorists – emboldened to attack us from within by the success of ISIS made possible by a desultory U.S. response.
President Obama famously characterized ISIS as the JV team. A downed Russian airliner and a 130 dead civilians in Paris later, that assertion sounds ridiculous. He said ISIS is “contained.” They’re not. They now control territory in the Middle East larger than Great Britain. He continues to insist that his strategy is working. Even many of his supporters on the left recognize that it isn’t.
It’s thus reasonable for the American people to reject his assertion that Syrian refugees will be “robustly” vetted. Why would we believe that assertion when so many of his other assertions have proved demonstrably false?
The minute the Obama administration could start showing some success in defeating ISIS, the country would very likely go along with any reasonable proposal regarding accepting Syrian refugees.
But not until then. Which means that thousands of refugees will continue to suffer because the American people don’t trust Barack Obama to keep us safe.
Every Muslim we import is a further threat to our nation. Not every Muslim is bold enough to attack us, but virtually all, to one degree or another, support the tenants of their religion, a religion that tolerates no other religion and commands its followers to kill non-believers. Much is made about how caring and tolerant we Americans should be. Where is the Muslim caring and tolerance? Not a single Muslim nation has agreed to take Syrian refugees. Nor should we. Any who support doing so will in time have the blood of their fellow citizens on their hands.
No, ISIS Is NOT contained. If we do not do something to protect ourselves, since the resident in the Whitehouse seems clear he is not going to, we will experience another 9/11 only on a larger scale. I say this because of all the Mosques that were built all over the country. Each one can harbor terrorists and probably does despite the whining that they are peaceful. Obama wants to destroy America, what better way? Why doesn’t he want Christians coming since they are the ones being killed for their faith? He gave the lame excuse that it would show favortism…HOW may I ask? Another thing the Whitehouse resident was saying about muslim women and children coming. Doesn’t anyone remember Vietnam? You could not trust a child or a woman anymore than a male vietcong! Proven by a muslim woman blowing herself up rather than being taken! One thing we can know for sure about the Whitehouse resident is if his lips are moving, he is lying!
The president doesn’t want to arm the Syrian opposition because they cannot tell the good guys from the bad guys. Yet at the same time he expects us to believe he can tell the good refugees from the bad ones.
Well Mr Gleiser you once again you confuse your extreme dislike for our President with facts concerning vetting immigrants. If you would take the time to do even a slight ‘google’ search you would find that the US, does in fact do a real creditable job of ‘vetting’. All that pass the first security tests are then interviewed, further screened and additional security checks. In the past few years the US has allowed far less than 1/2 of the applicants to enter. Most of the immigrants are children (1/2) and seniors (1/4). Besides that, look at the record. There have been NO record of an immigrant from the East European or middle East that has conducted a terrorist attack in the US. So instead of inciting hatred by some our good East Texas Christians, you would do a much better service if you reported the FACTS, not fiction.