Afraid to Name the Problem

For John, BLUF:  I blame Bush.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Let's Not Talk about Islam

BY BRUCE BAWER AUGUST 17, 2017 The article starts with a review of a Cole Porter standard, "Let's not talk about love" and then looks at what happened in Barcelona, but mostly how it was reported.

Here is the concluding paragraph:

It was all utterly vapid nonsense.  Context was virtually nowhere in evidence.  Denial was everywhere.  The cliché about not seeing the forest for the trees was never more apropos.  The more these things happen,  it seems, the more skilled the mainstream media have become in attending to the grisly details – and thus spiking their ratings – while doing their best to look away, as much as possible, from the atrocities' ideological roots.  From, in short, that fount of violence known as Islam, which has only just begun its violent assault on the civilized world.

Let us review the first sentence:

It was all utterly vapid nonsense.

There is a word I haven't heard recently—vapid.  Perfect.

If we don't do the needed analysis one of two things are going to happen.  On the one hand Jihadi terrorism may just fade away.  While possible, this is not likely.  Even as Daesh is being squeezed out of Iraq and Syria it is continuing on in the minds of its religious adherent.

The other possibility is that as Daesh is squeezed out of Iraq and Syria it moves elsewhere, in small cells, creating devastation in its wake, disrupting stable democracies and fragile states alike.  That will not end well.

The sooner we name our problem the better.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff