By Barbara Slavin Galvanized by the terrorist attacks in Paris, President Barack Obama is sending another 100-200 Special Forces troops to the Middle East to augment the fight against the group that calls itself the Islamic State (IS). The decision, revealed Tuesday, is a cautious escalation characteristic of a president who campaigned on a pledge […]
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Putin’s Syrian Misadventure
Posted December 2nd, 2015 at 10:27 am (UTC-4)
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Putin’s “crafty” Syrian chess move has left him with a lot more dead Russians; newly at odds with Turkey and Iran; weakened in Ukraine; acting as the defense lawyer for Assad — a mass murderer of Sunni Muslims, the same Sunni Muslims as Putin has in Russia; and with no real advances against ISIS.
A Compassionate and Cautious Approach to Refugees
Posted December 1st, 2015 at 5:07 pm (UTC-4)
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While we should offer hospitality for the sojourner, as Scripture enjoins us, our generosity must be leavened with realism and common sense. In today’s world that means there can be no open door to the world’s problems, including refugees fleeing Syria.
Terrorists and the Refugee Battleground
Posted December 1st, 2015 at 5:01 pm (UTC-4)
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In the battle for hearts and minds, branding refugees as security threats – as politicians on both sides of the Atlantic are doing – only fuels intolerance and gives terrorists a potent recruitment tool to convince young Muslims that the West has no place for them.
A Great Time to Be an American
Posted November 25th, 2015 at 2:18 pm (UTC-4)
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If you pay attention to the news, you may find it hard to work up much of a holiday spirit … ISIS, our massive national debt, political gridlock, the ongoing presidential campaign; it may seem as if there’s little to be thankful for. But beyond the headlines, most things are actually looking pretty bright …
Thanksgiving Tension Over Terrorism
Posted November 25th, 2015 at 2:13 pm (UTC-4)
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Not since 2001 have Americans entered the holiday season with more trepidation, more nervousness, thanks to the Friday the 13th attacks on Paris. Thanksgiving weekend sends millions of Americans onto roads, into airports and train stations and shopping malls, soft targets for terrorists intent on wreaking havoc. On Monday, the U.S. State Department issued a worldwide travel alert, urging Americans to be vigilant in public places and on public transportation, especially during the holiday season. Wednesday, President Obama came to cameras, flanked by his homeland security team, to reassure the public that law enforcement and intelligence services will be on the job through the holiday to secure the country. He said there is currently no specific or credible intelligence of a terrorist plot. Is there a threat? Yes. What’s the likelihood of a terrorist attack in the U.S.? The experts say, extremely low.
Islamic State’s Achilles’ Heel: Its Sunni Identity
Posted November 23rd, 2015 at 3:00 pm (UTC-4)
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This is an evil that cannot, contrary to what President Obama says, be contained. It must be defeated. And the only way to do that is to turn Sunni Arabs — its popular base — against it.
Meet the New Islamic State: Same as the Old Islamic State
Posted November 23rd, 2015 at 11:48 am (UTC-4)
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[A] series of active Islamic State plots have been disrupted all across Europe in the last year …The individual identified as the “mastermind” of the Paris attack, Abdelhamid Abbaoud, was connected to another plot in Belgium that was foiled by the Belgian police in January this year,
There is No Good Argument for Encryption Backdoors
Posted November 20th, 2015 at 2:46 pm (UTC-4)
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If secure encryption is outlawed, only outlaws will have secure encryption … Remember, the NSA’s bulk collection program foiled exactly zero terror plots, by its own admission. The call for encryption backdoors is just another extension of this futile and counterproductive dragnet.
Unspeakable Kerry
Posted November 20th, 2015 at 1:50 pm (UTC-4)
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It seems that to Kerry, when people kill journalists and Jews, that is not an attack on “everything that we do stand for,” whereas attacking a restaurant and stadium and a concert hall is.
Is America a Nation of Xenophobic Trumps?
Posted November 20th, 2015 at 1:14 pm (UTC-4)
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The radical proposals now being put forward by Trump (and frequently echoed in only slightly less virulent form by his rivals) would define the United States as a much less tolerant and pluralistic country, one in which an entire religion could be cast under a shroud of state-sponsored suspicion.
Before the Next Islamic State Attack
Posted November 20th, 2015 at 1:03 pm (UTC-4)
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Telling ISIS that the U.S. and its allies will escalate if they’re attacked is pointless. Escalation is what ISIS wants. Deterrence doesn’t come into it. Fine, you might say, but then what would a good robust strategy look like?