Obama’s State Department approached the problem of jihadist terrorism as one would organized crime. As with Al Capone, the idea was: take out the leader and the organization crumbles. Such a false analogy could only be promoted by an administration that refused to acknowledge it was dealing with an ideological problem, not a criminal one. Obama’s administration worked diligently to ostracize reform Muslim voices warning of a global jihadist insurgency, and instead frustratingly restricted the problem to “al-Qaeda inspired extremism.”
In denial, they dogmatically refused to accept it was not al Qaeda that inspired extremism, but extremism that inspired al Qaeda. Stating on CNN at the time of Bin Laden’s killing that we ignore the power of the Islamist ideological “narrative” to our peril, I warned that the “real strategic threat” would come from the wider alQ aeda “franchise” and those “vying to replace bin Laden as symbolic leaders.” It followed that killing Bin Laden was seen as a victory for the organized crime model. Naturally then, Obama was totally blindsided by al Qaeda’s successor, the so-called Islamic State.
From day one Obama decided to abandon any semblance of ideological confrontation with Islamist theocracy. He famously couldn’t even bring himself to name the threat, instantly crippling any counter-propaganda effort. Enter the Voldemort Effect, where one is so petrified of evil that “Must Not Be Named” that the resulting policy comes to resemble ideological appeasement, except coupled with a presidential military power grab.
Of course, failing to name Islamist extremism from fear of stigmatizing Muslims, only further stigmatised Muslims.
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