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The real threat to America

December 10, 2015
Columns

Obama refuses to recognize Islamic extremism

In his Oval Office address Sunday, President Obama made clear that he never misses an opportunity to advance his anti-gun agenda, the United States is still leading from behind, and he believes the American people are students in his lecture hall.

Mr. Obama grouped together the July attack on the military center in Chattanooga, the most recent shooting in San Bernardino, and the 2009 attack in my district at Fort Hood. It doesn't take a constitutional scholar to realize all of the perpetrators of these horrific acts were Islamist extremists. But regardless of California's arguably unconstitutional restrictions on gun purchases and gun ownership, our president tried to make us believe our nation's supposed "Wild West" gun laws are responsible for these tragedies.

It has been six years since Nidal Hasan murdered 13 of his fellow soldiers and injured 30 more on base in central Texas, and our president still refuses to acknowledge the real enemy that is threatening the safety of the homeland — radical Islamist extremism.

I can tell you firsthand the outrageous lengths I had to go through to get the Obama administration to change its classification of the attack on Fort Hood from workplace violence to an act of terrorism.

We saw this common trend from the White House continue after the first reports out of San Bernardino last week.

Two hours after the incident Mr. Obama responded, "We have a pattern of mass shootings in this country that has no parallel anywhere else in the world." Two days later, he slowly walked back that line when it was discovered that shooter Tashfeen Malik pledged allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

If the president had it his way, he would never admit terrorist activity and attacks are happening in America under his watch because it would imply he and his administration have failed to keep America safe. Instead, he would rather conveniently portray these incidents as failures of Congress.

The reality is these three shootings happened because Mr. Obama has refused to identify radical Islamist extremism as an enemy to the United States, and he has, therefore, taken no measures to fight it at home while making little effort to fight radicalized groups abroad.

The president has never publicly called on imams in the United States to denounce the actions of Muslims whom he says "do not represent Islam." He has given no incentives for followers of Islam to work with federal and local law enforcement in an effort to build transparency and strengthen intelligence capabilities. He has placed zero accountability on the Muslim population in America — which, by the way, numbers somewhere between 5 million and 10 million — we don't actually know.

For whatever reason, this president would rather practice political correctness than confess that Muslims, whom all read from the same book, need to step up to the plate and help combat this threat rather than sit back and try to differentiate "good Muslims" from "bad Muslims." Abroad, Mr. Obama is only willing to do just enough to make it look like he is doing something.

Incredibly, our commander in chief has completely disregarded the prospect of putting boots on the ground to combat ISIS terrorists before he knows the needs of his supposed mission to defeat them. Even more remarkable, today there are U.S. special forces actually on the ground — suggesting that his rhetoric is to make good on his campaign promises.

The only international effort Mr. Obama would like the United States to lead is fighting "climate change," and it is pitiful.

The president still believes he is a college professor. For those of us who have held real-world jobs outside of government and academia, who just don't see the world as he does and the role the U.S. should play in it, we are, in his eyes, just misguided students.

• Roger Williams is a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas and chairman of the House Conservatives Fund.

Issues:Military