IF IT LOOKS LIKE A DUCK, AND WALKS LIKE A DUCK

President Obama keeps insisting that’s ISIS is not Islamic. Well, maybe they don’t practice the Muslim faith the same way he does. But if vast numbers of Muslims across the world believe, and they do, that humans deserve to die for merely holding a different idea or drawing a cartoon or writing a book or eloping with the wrong person, not only does the Muslim world have something in common with ISIS, it has too much in common with ISIS. – BILL MAHER

Generally, I am not in agreement with HBO’s Bill Maher, because of his extreme liberal opinions, but I give him credit for being consistent. Unlike those that will support their political party’s views blindly, or others that will worship a particular leader’s stance for personal gain or obsession, he criticizes President Obama when he disagrees with his views. Why the reluctance of this administration to expose terrorism from what it is, a war of Islamic extremists against what they consider “infidels”, those that do not adhere to the strict interpretation of the Muslim religion. Not only there is an avoidance of mentioning Islam, but the concerted effort to minimize its existence as part of terrorism, to the extent of calling the recent beheading of an innocent woman in Oklahoma, by a vowed follower of Islam and Osama Bin Laden a “workplace violence”. If it looks like a duck, and walks like a duck, it is a duck.

In November 5 of 2009, army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan massacred many soldiers in Ft. Hood Texas, killing 13 and injuring 30 others. It did not matter that the Major had a well known background of extreme Islamic views and had voiced his disdain for our country, or that he committed his heinous act while chanting “Allah is great”; this clear terrorist act was also called “workplace violence”. In the bigger world stage, the threat from the Islamic State”, (ISIS), was ignored and made fun of by our President, calling them a JV team, in spite of being warned of the danger they posed by the intelligence services and Department of Defense for the last one and a half years. Interesting to note when he, after public pressure, decided to act, even if half heartily, maximizing what he would not do, and announcing what he would to the enemy 2 weeks prior, he declared the action using the word “I ordered”, but when confronted by the tardiness of his decision blamed it on “they underestimated ”, blaming those that work for him. I will let speculations on his motives to commentators like Maher and Limbaugh, on both extremes of ideologies, but t is obvious that his administration policies and actions depend more on politics than the duties of the office. As far as Obama, the least of what could be said is that he seems not interested in being in charge, and possesses a dangerous personal mix of narcissism and incompetence. We are living in perilous times confronting crisis after crisis, the latest being the outbreak of the deadly virus Ebola. We desperately need a leader to be able to recover our sense of well being and security. Obama is not it.

Fernando J Milanes MD