Peggy Noonan points out the importance of the essay on The Atlantic on ISIS -- “What ISIS Really Wants” (See previous blog)
WSJ -- Peggy Noonan -- An Administration Adrift on Denial
“Why won’t the president think clearly about the nature of the Islamic State?”
“Great essays tell big truths. A deeply reported piece in next month’s Atlantic magazine does precisely that, and in a way devastating to the Obama administration’s thinking on ISIS.”
“What ISIS Really Wants,” by contributing editor Graeme Wood, is going to change the debate.
Fareed Zakaria defends the president’s deliberate language of “violent extremism”
WP -- Fareed Zakaria -- The limits of the “Islamic” label
President Obama stands accused of political correctness for his unwillingness to accuse groups such as the Islamic State of “Islamic extremism,” choosing a more generic term, “violent extremism.”
"But far from being a scholar concerned with describing the phenomenon accurately, the president is deliberately choosing not to emphasize the Islamic State’s religious dimension for political and strategic reasons. After all, what would be the practical consequence of describing the group, also known as ISIS, as Islamic? Would the West drop more bombs on it? Send in more soldiers to fight it? No, but it would make many Muslims feel that their religion had been unfairly maligned. And it would dishearten Muslim leaders who have continually denounced the Islamic State as a group that does not represent Islam."
