Lessons From the Boston Marathon Bombing: Political Correctness Kills
America is facing a jihadist enemy. It is an enemy that has proven it can inflict more civilian casualties on the United States than any other foreign enemy in almost 200 years.
Just last week this enemy killed 3 innocent people, wounded more than 100 and paralyzed a major American city.
Yet, our obsession with political correctness, with a strong desire not to offend our enemies makes our self-defense immeasurably more difficult.
The evil nature and intentions of our jihadist enemies are already clear. They hate us enough to pack pressure cookers with ball bearings, to hijack airliners and turn them into weapons of mass destruction, to wear underwear bombs, shoe bombs, and any other kind of bomb they can smuggle onto aircraft.
Yet we still can’t face facts. Consider these recent events:
– Despite screaming “Allah Akbar!” when he opened fire on unarmed fellow soldiers at Fort Hood – and despite his own long history of radicalism, including communicating with Anwar al-Alwaki, the American Al Qaeda terrorist – the Obama administration still calls Nidal Hasan’s deadly attack an act of mere “workplace violence.” In fact, the Army’s after-action report said nothing about radical Islam.
– We spent crucial days blaming the deadly Benghazi terror attacks on a video, and even now have treated the filmmaker much more harshly than the actual terrorists who killed our ambassador.
– The Associated Press Stylebook recently revised its definition of “Islamist” to render it more benign, classifying Islamists as mere supporters of a “political movement that favors reordering government and society in accordance with laws prescribed by Islam.”
– Even after the Boston bombing suspects radical beliefs became well-known, commentators continue to insist that their beliefs are just one part of their personality no more relevant than, say, tastes in music or the influence of violent movies.
– A commentator at one of our nation’s most influential magazines even went so far as to write an essay entitled, “The Boston Bombers Were Muslim: So?”
As key figures in government and the media continue to minimize the threat of radical Islam, one wonders if it’s having a direct impact on investigations.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the oldest of the two Boston bomber suspects, is now the fifth suspected terrorist to be questioned by the FBI before they attempted their acts of terror.
Why are we questioning and releasing future terrorists?
Who are we trying to impress with our political correctness?
Our enemies simply don’t care. Even worse, they view our hand-wringing as a sign of weakness, and it encourages further attacks.
Don’t forget that plotting for the 9/11 attacks began during a Clinton administration that was so eager to appease Middle Eastern jihadists it invited Yasser Arafat, one of the world’s foremost terrorists, to the White House again and again.
He even received the ultimate tribute from the international politically correct left: the Nobel Peace Prize. Arafat was so impressed by this tribute that he launched the Second Intifada – complete with wave after wave of deadly suicide bombings – just a few years later.
Yet we not only persist with political correctness, we now go so far as to actually arm our enemies.
The Obama administration persists in giving F-16s and advanced tanks to Egypt, even after the Muslim Brotherhood (motto: “Jihad is our way”) took power.
The United States just pledged $500 million in aid to the Palestinian Authority, a government that is even now unifying with Hamas, one of the world’s worst terror organizations.
While we revise stylebooks and debate the power of movies and music over the power of jihad, our enemies laugh – and plan future attacks.
Political correctness kills.
Jay Sekulow is Chief Counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ). Follow him on Twitter@JaySekulow. This article originally appeared on Fox News.
