WarSclerotic

Obama’s Appeasement Speech On War Only Emboldens Jihadist Enemy – Investors.com.

War On Terror: As jihadists bomb Boston, behead a soldier in London and firebomb police in Sweden, President Obama has decided America’s actions have offended them and it’s time to retreat.

In arguably the weakest national security speech by a commander in chief, Obama denied Thursday that our terrorist enemy is inspired by Islam — while at the same time appeasing Islamic critics by apologizing for drone strikes and agreeing to throttle back on such precision bombings, and close down the terrorist prison at Guantanamo.

He vowed to wind down further military actions in the war on terror, arguing he can protect America through law enforcement actions, instead, as if the threat comes from bank robbers or other common criminals.

His mea culpas and capitulations will only embolden the Islamist enemy. In case you missed the interminably long and rambling speech, here are some of its many pusillanimous lowlights:

• “Force alone cannot make us safe. We cannot use force everywhere that a radical ideology takes root; and in the absence of a strategy that reduces the wellspring of extremism, a perpetual war — through drones or Special Forces or troop deployments — will prove self-defeating.”

• “So the next element of our strategy involves addressing the underlying grievances and conflicts that feed extremism.”

• “In Iraq and Afghanistan … thousands of civilians have been killed.”

• “Much of the criticism about drone strikes understandably centers on reports of civilian casualties … It is a hard fact that U.S. strikes have resulted in civilian casualties. And for the families of those civilians, no words or legal construct can justify their loss … those deaths will haunt us as long as we live, just as we are haunted by the civilian casualties that have occurred throughout conventional fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.”

• “By the end of 2014, we will no longer have the same need for force protection (in the Afghanistan theater), and the progress we’ve made against core al-Qaida will reduce the need for unmanned strikes.”

• “America does not take strikes when we have the ability to capture individual terrorists; our preference is always to detain, interrogate and prosecute.”

• “America does not take (drone) strikes to punish individuals” for past terrorist acts; “we act against terrorists who pose a continuing and imminent threat to the American people.”

• “Targeted action against terrorists, effective partnerships, diplomatic engagement and assistance — through such a comprehensive strategy we can significantly reduce the chances of large-scale attacks on the homeland.”

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