There is much talk about \u201cthe Islamic State,\u201d or \u201cISIS,\u201d or \u201cISIL,\u201d or whatever we are calling it. To listen to the talking heads, both Democrats and Republicans, one could be forgiven for thinking that these 15,000 or so Muslim butchers are the biggest threat that the Western world has ever faced.<\/p>\n
Of course, as is almost always the case, there is all of the difference in the world between the conventional wisdom and reality.<\/p>\n
By now, no one who\u2019s been alive for more than a few years, and certainly no one who has acquired affection for liberty, needs to be told that the government and its apologists in the media are not infrequently less than fully honest. So, when a bipartisan consensus emerges over any issue of the day, those of us who have long ago tired of cheerleading for one team or the other shouldn\u2019t respond with anything other than skepticism.<\/p>\n
And when politicians and polemicists of both national parties would have us believe that this issue is greater than any other, those who have been deceived one too many times can\u2019t but meet such assurances with anything less than incredulity.<\/p>\n
This lover of liberty is saying it: The notion that ISIS is an imminent danger that America must either face or be destroyed is a lie of epic proportions. It is also the offspring of the union of the same two factors\u2014political opportunism and alarmism\u2014that beget every national \u201ccrisis.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are two decisive considerations that bear this out.<\/p>\n
First, if we are really all that interested in protecting ourselves against threats to our national security, and if we really believe that Islamic terrorists constitute the gravest danger, then one of the most rudimentary things that we need to do is to identify the enemy<\/em> for what it is.\u00a0 It\u2019s a clich\u00e9, but it\u2019s true, that the first step toward defeating a problem is to acknowledge that there is one.\u00a0 This, in turn, requires that the problem be properly diagnosed.<\/p>\n However, this is something that Democrats and Republicans resolutely refuse to do.<\/p>\n Democrats can scarcely, if ever, bring themselves to even utter the word \u201cIslamic\u201d in connection with terrorism, and President Obama, even while addressing the nation with respect to ISIS, goes so far as to insist that this is not <\/em>an Islamic organization!<\/p>\n Republicans, though, are hardly any better. While they (rightly) criticized Obama for making such a wildly preposterous statement, Republicans regularly imply that \u201cWorld War IV,\u201d as neoconservative writer Norman Podhoretz characterizes \u201cthe War on Terror,\u201d has nothing <\/em>to do with Muslims <\/em>or Islam. <\/em><\/p>\n Rather, the fight to which Republicans want for Americans to commit their collective heart and soul is a fight against \u201cradical<\/em> Islam,\u201d \u201cIslamism<\/em>,\u201d \u201cIslamo<\/em>–fascism,<\/em>\u201d \u201cIslamo-<\/em>nazism,\u201d \u201cIslamic extremism,<\/em>\u201d and whatever other names they can invent to conceal the nature and identity of the enemy.<\/p>\n Since they are so fond of drawing parallels between the so-called \u201cWar on Terror\u201d\u2014notice, even here they can\u2019t bring themselves to say Islamic <\/em>terror\u2014and World War II, we can ask Republicans: What would have happened if the Allied forces during WWII distinguished between \u201cradical Nazis\u201d and \u201cmoderate Nazis,\u201d or \u201cfascist extremists\u201d and \u201cmoderate fascists?\u201d<\/p>\n Muhammad, the founder of Islam, set the precedent for violence generally, and beheadings specifically, when, upon conquering his enemies, he decapitated, en masse, 700 <\/em>of them. Those against whom we are now being urged to fight aren\u2019t \u201cradicals\u201d or \u201cextremists,\u201d and they certainly aren\u2019t \u201cIslamists.\u201d<\/p>\n They are Mohammedans.<\/p>\n But Republicans exhibit as much illiteracy\u2014or dishonesty\u2014when it comes to talk of Islam and Islamic terror as do the Democrats.<\/p>\n Secondly, anyone who carries on ad infinitum over the threat of ISIS while doing anything less than demanding an immediate<\/em> moratorium on all <\/em>immigration\u2014both illegal and legal<\/em>\u2014to the United States is either a fool, a liar, or both.<\/p>\n As Brietbart <\/em>reported last week, in just 2014 alone, a little under 500 <\/em>illegal immigrants from terrorist-sponsoring countries have been apprehended sneaking across our southern border.\u00a0 To put this number in perspective, it should be remembered that it took only 19 <\/em>terrorists to bring about the fateful events of September 11, 2001.<\/p>\n And, lest it bears saying, it takes only one <\/em>terrorist to detonate a bomb and slaughter thousands.<\/p>\n Yet not only hasn\u2019t a single one of the politicians or media sensationalists who are now breaking out into cold sweats over ISIS come even close to calling for an abrupt halt on all immigration; they aren\u2019t even calling to take the most rudimentary of steps in sealing our infamously porous borders.<\/p>\n Recall as well that many of these same people have advocated on behalf of amnesty<\/em> (\u201ccomprehensive immigration reform\u201d).<\/p>\n If Islamic terrorists compose the single most terrible danger with which Western civilization has to reckon, then those who believe this should invest a fraction of the energy they spend fretting over the borders of Middle Eastern countries into displaying some concern for our own borders.<\/p>\n Unless and until this happens\u2014and I\u2019m not holding my breath\u2014no one with a modicum of intelligence should fail to recognize the buzz over ISIS for the hyperbole that it is.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There is much talk about \u201cthe Islamic State,\u201d or \u201cISIS,\u201d or \u201cISIL,\u201d or whatever we are calling it. To listen to the talking heads, both Democrats and Republicans, one could be forgiven for thinking that these 15,000 or so Muslim butchers are the biggest threat that the Western world has ever faced. Of course, as…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n