President Barack Obama addresses the nation from the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, Sunday night, Dec. 6, 2015. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Pity our President. He has been trying to convince the world for three years that he has won the “War on Terror,” but events keep undermining him.
First there was his self-congratulatory victory lap over the killing of Osama Bin Laden, which (despite the terrorist attack in Benghazi on the 11th anniversary of 9/11 and ensuing cover-up) helped win him the 2012 election.
Then, in May 2013, as he outlined a dramatic shift in US policy largely disengaging from the Middle East, the president announced that the “Global War on Terror” was over.
In January 2014, he derided ISIS as the “JV team,” rejecting claims that his policies were failing. ISIS spent the following two years capturing much of Syria and Iraq, enslaving and raping thousands of women, and beheading, drowning, and burning alive Christians.
And just hours before the Paris massacre, President Obama confidently told the world that ISIS was “contained” — a statement belied later that day by the vicious murder of 129 Parisians and the wounding of 352 others in a well-coordinated, multi-prong attack. (And also flatly contradicted by General Joseph Dunford, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, days later when he testified before Congress: “We have not contained ISIL.”)
It makes perfect sense then that, after the Paris attacks, President Obama traveled to France to denounce . . . global warming. Calling climate change, not terrorism, our greatest threat. Really. A deft change of subject and misdirection away from the manifest danger of terrorism exacerbated by his policies — particularly the power vacuum he has created in the Middle East by abdicating US responsibility in that troubled region.
When some criticized the president for woefully misjudging ISIS and for the failure of his policies, he petulantly tried to shift the discussion to blaming cold-heartened Republicans for suggesting ISIS might try to sneak terrorists into the US with Middle Eastern refugees. And the mainstream media largely accommodated him.
Wednesday, ISIS, not global warming, killed 14 Americans in San Bernardino and wounded 21 others.
President Obama’s initial reaction was predictable; before law enforcement had even located the terrorists, he lectured us about gun control and bent over backwards to avoid acknowledging that radical Islamic terrorists had just murdered 14 citizens.
But here are the facts as they were known Friday morning: Syed Farook, a devout Muslim who recently traveled to Pakistan and Saudi Arabia and had contacts with suspected terrorists, married a Pakistani woman, Tashfeen Malik, whom he met through the internet and then brought to the U.S. The pair created a bomb-making factory in their home, using bomb designs that are the signature of Islamic terrorists, acquired thousands of rounds of ammunition, and armed themselves with rifles, hand guns, and IEDs. After attempting to destroy their electronic footprint by trashing their computers and cell phones (with whom might they have been communicating?), the two dressed in assault clothing equipped with GoPro cameras to capture the action, and then attacked a Christmas party, slaughtering innocent people.
Yet on Friday the Administration was talking about gun control, and mainstream media carried headlines such as: “Suspects Leave Trail of Clues, but No Clear Motive Emerges.” Really, no clue what the motive might be? (At least this time the Administration is not claiming the attacks were caused by a videotape.) Of course, now we have learned Malik was a follower of ISIS from a radicalized Pakistani mosque — indeed ISIS is crowing about the work of these “Lions.” And in the coming weeks there is little doubt law enforcement will uncover additional detail about the terrorists’ connections with fellow travelers.
So what are the early takeaways?
1. San Bernardino was the worst Islamist terrorist attack on US soil since 9/11. This is not a “new phase” in terror, as the president defensively said Sunday night. It is yet another attack on civilians in a long war against the West launched, without provocation, by Islamist extremists on 9/11.
2. President Obama’s policies and his refusal to see the world as it is, are failing America. Compare President Bush’s inspirational and reassuring 9/11 speech to the nation with President Obama’s speech Sunday night, which was neither, simply business as usual.
3. Those who express concern about the ability of ISIS to infiltrate the US through Middle Eastern migrants may have a legitimate concern that requires a balancing of traditional US compassion and welcome with sober precautions.
4. San Bernardino is not about gun control — all those knee-jerk Facebook posts notwithstanding — it is about terrorism. France has some of the toughest gun control laws in the world, and California has some of the toughest gun control laws in the U.S.; neither stopped these terrorists. Neither of the terrorists (nor the Fort Hood shooter, nor the Boston marathon bombers) were on the terrorist watch list. And pipe bombs are illegal regardless of background checks.
5. And, no, Mr. President, global warming is not the greatest threat we face.
The “War on Terror” is not over. We are in the thick of it.
John B. Daukas practices law in Boston. The views expressed in this column are his own and not those of his law firm.
President Barack Obama addresses the nation from the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, Sunday night, Dec. 6, 2015. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) 
