Our Feckless President

My View by Jim Yacavone

Feckless. It’s my new favorite word. It means ineffective or incom­­pe­tent, and it’s been applied a lot lately to describe President Obama’s policy or rather lack of one towards Islamic terrorism. Unfortunately, the description fits. 


In January 2014 Obama compared ISIS to a Jayvee team. That’s not what U.S. intelligence agen­cies were saying at the time. Just hours before the recent horrific Paris attacks Obama told us that ISIS was “contained.” That’s not what his in­telligence officials were telling him. These are just two examples that show he does not understand or care about the goals, capabilities and threat of ISIS and radical Islam.

May­­be he sees the world through ideolog­ical lens­­es that blind him to the truth. Maybe’s he’s delu­sional. Maybe he just doesn’t know what he’s doing. To quote Hillary Clinton, “What does it matter?” Whatever the reason, it is clear that Obama is unwilling to do what it takes to destroy ISIS.

The ISIS threat to our country is real but Obama doesn’t see it. It is exactly the same threat as the Nazi posed to this country in 1939. Like the Nazis, ISIS is driven by a perverted and dangerous ideology intent on world domination—in this case, a world caliphate under Sharia Law. Like the Nazis, ISIS gains territory by force and commits unmentionable atrocities against peoples and beliefs it considers inferior. Like the Nazis, ISIS is capable of bringing the attack to our shores and is therefore an existential threat to our safety and security. ISIS has vowed commit terror attacks in the U.S., and, as we have seen, ISIS follows its words with action.

Fortunately, in 1941 we had a President willing to wage all-out war against a malicious evil that threatened our country. Unfortunately, in 2015 we have a President who shirks from the task.

Obama’s reaction to the Paris attacks was predictable. He deplored them, sympathized with the victims, vowed to stand next to our allies to bring the perpetrators to justice and then did nothing meaningful to advance the fight against our enemies. Secretary of State John Kerry says that we should not expect a quan­titative increase in air strikes against ISIS but rather a qualitative increase. I guess that means we are now going to try to do a good job of bombing ISIS. What were we trying to do before—just an okay job?

With a feckless ally like Obama, it is no wonder that French President Francois Hollande has turned to Russia and Egypt for help in the fight against ISIS.

There was speculation that Hollande would invoke Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty which requires all NATO countries to defend an attack against one of them. Hollande has not done so. My guess is that the Obama administration discouraged him out of fear that Obama might be forced to actually get serious about destroying ISIS.

Despite what happened in Paris, Obama is still determined to bring 10,000 Syrian refugees into this country. His spokesman tells us we have nothing to fear because they will be thoroughly vetted. Every informed security professional, even former administration officials, say it is not possible to screen out ISIS sympathizers. Once again, a feckless Obama reveals that he will not let reality get in the way of his misguided policies.

That’s my view, what’s yours?