Monday, August 28, 2017

Meet the "New" State Dep't Blindness. Same As the Old State Dep't Blindness

I know the Always Trumpers are determined to stick with their hero no matter what, including, it seems, the fact that there's now very little difference between how Obama saw and how the current POTUS sees (or rather, refuses to see) the Islam in Islamic terrorism/supremacism.

As proof I offer the following--Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's thoughts (ones he uttered to Chris Wallace) re Sebatian Gokra's parting shot about "radical Islam" (my bolds):

WALLACE: Sebastian Gorka, one of the president’s spokesmen on foreign policy, was fired on Friday -- this following the firing of Steve Bannon. And some folks are saying that this is -- particularly on the right, further to the right, I should say -- are saying that this is a victory of the globalists, and they include you in that group, over the so-called America Firsters.

Sebastian Gorka in his resignation letter wrote this about the Afghanistan speech: The fact that those who drafted and approved the speech remove any mention of radical Islam or radical Islamic terrorism proves that a crucial element of the presidential campaign has been lost.

Is Gorka right?

TILLERSON: I think he’s completely wrong, Chris. And I think it shows a lack of understanding of the president's broader policy when it comes to protecting Americans at home and abroad from all acts of terrorism. Terrorism, as we've said, manifests itself in many types of organization.

The president has charged us to develop policies and tactics both diplomatically and militarily to attack terrorism in as many forms, wherever it exists in the world and wherever it might present a threat to the homeland or to Americans anywhere. This means that we have to develop techniques that are global in their nature. All we want is to ensure that terrorists do not have the capability to organize and carry out attacks.

WALLACE: So, what you make of this division between America Firsters and so-called globalists?

TILLERSON: I don't see any division, Chris. I think it's a question of tactics and how you achieve those objectives. I think the president has been clear in his speech in Afghanistan that we are not undertaking nation-building.

So, we will be shifting our diplomatic and aid and development programs as well to coincide with the president’s view that the Afghan government and that Afghan people must own their form of government. And they must come to some reconciliation with all ethnic groups, including the Taliban, as to how they can secure their country, as a peaceful country, one that does not support terrorism, does not provide safe havens for terrorists and does not align itself with any terrorist organizations or countries that do. That's what winning looks like.
That's what winning looks like?

I don't think so.

That's what burying your noggin in the sand such that you can pretend that the Taliban--the Taliban!--is merely one of many Afghani "ethnic groups" (and let's ixnay any mention of the ihad-jay) looks like.

What an Obama-esque thing to do!

And, as should be abundantly clear from the previous administration's failed approach, that's what losing--big time--looks like.



Update: Tillerson isn't the only clueless/Obamaesque member of Trump's cabinet. As Mark Steyn notes, one of Trump's generals is equally deaf, dumb and blind re the jihad (my bolds):
It's what? ten? no, eleven days since the attacks in Spain that left 14 people dead in Barcelona plus one woman in the nearby seaside town of Cambrils. For once there wasn't even the pretense that this was a "lone wolf" terrorist. It was an extremely large cell, organized by an imam called Abdelbaki es Satty, who prematurely self-detonated the night before when he and his conspirators accidentally blew up the house they'd filled with TATP. 
I thought these novel aspects might hold the attention of the media. The imam/cell leader would seem to belie the view of the US National Security Advisor H R McMaster that Muslim terrorists who commit terror in the name of Islam do so out of "ignorance" of their faith - a view so fiercely held by Mr McMaster that it has resulted in the systematic cleansing from the White House of all those who dissent therefrom. And had Imam es Satty managed to get the TATP into the back of the van the death toll would have been many times higher. 
But he didn't, so it wasn't. And fifteen dead on a glamorous and glittering European boulevard at the height of the tourist season now barely rates a #JeSuisWhatever hashtag, never mind an all-star pop concert with an audience of sorrowful, tilty-headed locals promising that no matter how often you blow us up we won't change - by, say, adopting a less tilty-headed and sorrowful expression...
Here's the truth: the Trump factotums who are determined to give Islam a jihadectomy are bone ignorant, and therefore no better--and perhaps even worse--than those lame-brains who served Obama.

Update: This one ties all of the above into a nice, neat bow (hat tip--MW).

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