How Did It Come To This? Obama as Wormtongue

Phony Wars and Real Bombs

A story is told of Winston Churchill during the blitz.  As the bombs were falling on London and other UK cities, Churchill stood up in the Commons and gave a devastating speech. 

In these terrible hours, let it never be forgotten that the present war we are now fighting daily is of minor consequence.  The British people are looking for a lasting legacy.  These Nazi bombs will not tear us apart.  All this, while inconvenient to be sure, is a minor distraction.  The real war lies elsewhere.  And to that war we must turn our attention like a great searchlight.  We must fight it on the beaches.  We must fight it in the hills. We must do battle on heath and in home.  And we will never, ever surrender.

And what of Hitler and the Nazis? I hear you ask.  Trouble yourselves not about them.  In the long arc of history, they will fade to an obscure footnote.  Instead, let us shame them in our adamant resolve and with our ancient warrior spirit as we fight the war now threatening all mankind.  The real war.  The war that, if we are victorious, will ensure our children survive.  The great war against climate change.

Fast forward to November, 2015.  Several days ago, President Obama stood up at a press conference:

“Next week I will be joining President Hollande and other world leaders in Paris for the Global Climate Conference,” Obama said. “What a powerful rebuke to the terrorists it will be when the world stands as one and shows that we will not be deterred from building a better future for our children.”

No doubt Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is presently feeling himself powerfully rebuked.  The best that one can do, from our vantage point, is sigh.  Only fools and horses could be so dumb and inept.

Obama Says He’ll Rebuke ISIS By Talking About Climate Change

The Federalist

"What a powerful rebuke to the terrorists it will be."

November 24, 2015 By The Federalist Staff

President Barack Obama said during a press conference on Tuesday that his plans to attend a climate change summit in December will serve as a “powerful rebuke” to ISIS, which took credit for brutal terrorist attacks in Paris that killed 130 people and injured hundreds more.

While standing alongside French president François Hollande in a joint news conference at the White House, Obama explained that his attendance at next month’s World Climate Summit will put ISIS in its place.  “Next week I will be joining President Hollande and other world leaders in Paris for the Global Climate Conference,” Obama said. “What a powerful rebuke to the terrorists it will be when the world stands as one and shows that we will not be deterred from building a better future for our children.”

This isn’t the first time Obama has conflated climate change with terrorism. In April, the two-term Democratic president said a changing climate, a dynamic which has existed since the earth’s creation, posed a far greater threat than terrorism.  “Wednesday is Earth Day, a day to appreciate and protect this precious planet we call home. And today, there’s no greater threat to our planet than climate change,” he said in an official White House video released last April.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry echoed Obama’s comments just days before the devastating terrorist attacks in Paris in a speech about how climate change represents a dire threat to American national security. Kerry did not mention ISIS a single time in his speech.

Obama’s comments come just a day after the State Department issued a worldwide travel alert urging American citizens not to travel abroad for fear of increased terror activity. The travel alert, which did not mention any specific threats caused by increased climate change, will expire in February of 2016.