Alabama reacts to President Obama’s terrorism address
President Barack Obama took to the airwaves Sunday night in a rare Oval Office address to the nation calling last week’s mass shooting in San Bernardino, California that left 14 dead an “act of terrorism designed to kill innocent people.” The president offered no new details on the investigation into the San Bernardino attack, saying “so far, we have no evidence that the killers were directed by a terrorist organization overseas or that they were part of a broader conspiracy here at home.” The speech — aimed at reassuring a nervous nation and only the third address from the Oval Office during his Presidency — was his most passionate denunciation of ISIS to date, vowing to “destroy” the group. However, it failed to announce an overhaul of a policy that many critics have deemed insufficient to take on the evolving threat. Obama also urged Congress to adopt new restrictions on assault weapons and ban citizens on no-fly lists from being able to purchase firearms. Alabama politicians were quick to weigh in: U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne (AL-01): Tomorrow is December 7th, a day that will live in infamy because our nation was attacked at Pearl Harbor by an enemy we failed to fully understand. I worry we are making the same mistake today when it comes to Islamic extremism. The President’s speech tonight offered nothing new in the way of a strategy to defeat this enemy. We need a clear strategy that will ensure our enemy is defeated in the Middle East, on social media, and here at home. More political speeches won’t solve the problem. We need action from our Commander-in-Chief. On Twitter: The President outlined little in the way of a strategy or new approach to defeat this vile enemy known as Islamic extremism. — Rep. Bradley Byrne (@RepByrne) December 7, 2015 U.S. Rep. Martha Roby (AL-02): Americans are rightfully concerned about the growing threat posed by radical Islamic terrorism, and I’m glad President Obama chose to address the nation. I’m disappointed that, once again, the president did not lay out a clear strategy for actually defeating ISIS. Repeating old talking points and deflecting blame does not demonstrate the kind of leadership Americans want and need in a moment like this. I agree that Congress should pass an Authorization of Military Force specific to ISIS, and I have co-sponsored a straightforward resolution that can move forward tomorrow. However, many in Congress are understandably reluctant to authorize military force when our Commander-in-Chief repeatedly fails to demonstrate a clear strategy for confronting and defeating the ISIS threat. President Obama is wrong to use the terrorist threat to advance his anti-gun agenda. Trying to strip law-abiding Americans of their 2nd Amendment right to own firearms is no way to combat terrorism. I will fight any attempt by President Obama to erode our 2nd Amendment rights. U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers (AL-03): President Obama’s address Sunday night was nothing more than him taking advantage of an opportunity to mask his failed strategy against ISIS. He used the San Bernardino terrorist attack as a plea for tighter gun control measures rather than announcing a real strategy to destroy ISIS. I will fight against any effort by the Obama Administration to restrict our Second Amendment rights. President Obama must realize the true threat of violent Islamic extremism and create a strategy to destroy it at its source. The American people deserve nothing less. U.S. Rep. Robert Aderholt (AL-04): The President did not announce any new strategy tonight. The status quo will not defeat ISIS. #POTUS — Rep. Robert Aderholt (@Robert_Aderholt) December 7, 2015
Diane Roberts: Stop the French-bashing; we owe them
For reasons that do us no credit, Americans find it easy to insult the French. Perhaps we hate their freedoms – their freedom to live for something other than money, their freedom to enjoy food and sex minus 400 years of Protestant guilt. We call the French “cheese-eating surrender monkeys;” we sneer at John Kerry and Mitt Romney because they speak French. At the Oct. 28th debate, Jeb Bush tried to get clever about Congress’ laziness, accusing them of adhering to a “French work week.” When the French refused to participate in our perfectly stupid invasion of Iraq, we boycotted their wine and some particularly silly congressmen demanded that the House cafeterias serve “Freedom Fries,” and “Freedom Toast.” Now that Paris has suffered terrorist attacks that killed at least 132, some Americans are expressing sympathy and solidarity with France. President Obama called it an “attack on the civilized world.” Buildings from 1 World Trade Center in New York to a bridge in Nashville lit themselves up with the blue, white and red of the French tricoleur. Nous sommes tous Parisiens. Then there’s the Republican Party. Donald Trump castigated the French for their “tough gun control laws.” If only everyone in the concert hall and the restaurant and the stadium had been toting AK-47s like the terrorists, things would have been very different. Newt Gingrich and Anne Coulter piled on, blaming France for not being armed. The politicizing got so bad that Red State’s Erick Erickson, a big gun-hugger himself, tweeted: “I gotta say, it does feel a little icky to turn this attack in Paris into a debate on how France should adopt our 2nd amendment.” Naturally, it’s all Barack Obama’s fault. He didn’t keep U.S. troops in Iraq; he didn’t deal with Syria; he hurt Israel’s feelings; he refuses to utter the words “radical Islam.” We all know that those are magic words, words that would solve the problem. Criticizing Obama’s Syria policy is fair enough: It’s been disastrous. But blaming him for ISIL absolves the neocons of the Bush-Cheney administration whose trigger-happy invasion of Iraq and cavalier treatment of the country, especially the Rummy-Wolfie-Cheney de-Baathification program, poured gasoline on the flame of extremism. Trump would probably describe France as a “loser” country, with its paid maternity leave, fast trains, humane employment laws, and excellent healthcare system. The French, in turn, reject “Anglo-Saxon capitalism” as rapacious and destructive. Nevertheless, the United States could learn from France – as we have always learned from France. French philosophers inspired our Founding Fathers with the idea that government should serve its citizens and that freedom was a human right. Rousseau argued for the state’s “social contract” with the individual; Voltaire championed civil rights and religious freedom; Montesquieu advocated for the separation of powers in government. What, you thought we came up with that all by ourselves? The French tradition of reason, of rational thought, of respect for knowledge, might help Republican presidential candidates get past their hysterical responses. Ted Cruz says ISIL is “coming to America.” Jeb Bush says the U.S. should focus on “Christian refugees”: They’re welcome in the U.S. as long as we make sure they’re the real deal, you know, give them a catechism exam, ask them to eat a bacon sandwich, and see whether they say “Merry Christmas!” instead of “Happy Holidays.” Ben Carson wants to ban any and all refugees from the Middle East. That’ll learn ’em. Because Obama’s going to let in 200,000 Syrians who are almost certainly psychopathic jihadis. Carson would bomb an oil field to make ISIL “look like losers.” Trump wants to bomb, too: all the oil fields. Then Exxon can come in and make everything, as he said, “beautiful.” And, according to him, it’s 250,000 Syrian refugees. The real number proposed by Obama is 10,000. But why let the facts get in the way of a good piece of political insanity? And under no circumstances should we remember that terrorists are often homegrown: Timothy McVeigh, the London suicide bombers in 2005, Anders Behring Breivik, and Dylan Roof were native to the nation they tried to attack. If nothing else, perhaps the Republicans will stop with the French-bashing and remember that if it were not for France, the United States would not exist. The French government sent guns, soldiers and money during the American Revolution, and the Marquis de Lafayette spent millions of his own fortune on American independence. The French deserve better than to be told they should be just like us. Diane Roberts teaches at Florida State University. Her latest book is “TRIBAL: College football and the Secret Heart of America.”
