GOP Flunks Paris Lesson

The GOP has long had a problem with science, but now they are flunking math.  For our numerically challenged Republican friends let us explain 7 is greater than 1.  One of the eight participants in the Paris atrocity might have entered as a Syrian refugee, the other 7 were home grown.  The ratio has increase as more members of the cell have been captured or killed.

Even as to the one alleged fake refugee, he would not have passed the US screening process.  Europe has absorbed a stream of refugees coming directly from war ravaged Syria.  The refugees coming to America have generally been in camps for a year or more.  They fall within a special program for the most vulnerable.  They consist of victims of torture, women who are heads of households,  and those with special medical needs.  Less than 3% are men of fighting age.  They are screened by the UN and screened and individually interviewed by us.  http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-syrian-refugee-screening-20151117-story.html.

Life does not come with guarantees, only probabilities.  A terrorist might slip though, just as your next door neighbor may shoot up you neighborhood with an AK47.   Although I have not met your neighbor, I would hazard that neither are likely.

The greater threat is assisting ISIS to radicalize American Muslims.  Republican demagoguery is whipping the public into a frenzy and spreading fear in the Islamic community.  Imagine how you would react if candidates for president called for closing your places of worship (Trump), excluding people of your religion from entering the country (Cruz),  and setting up a government agency to proselytize other religious values (Kasich).  Ala Nazi Germany's requirement that Jews wear a yellow star, Trump has called for special identification documents for American Muslims.  Shamefully, even the Democratic mayor of Roanoke, Virginia, David Bowers has cited with favor, the precedent of Japanese interment.

As I have said before, GOP bullshit is fertilizing home grown terrorists.  We may all reap what the Republicans sow.

Obama is Beating ISIS

With wall to wall news we know more, but remember less.  Lost in the 24 hour news cycle is the simple truth that the president's strategy is working.   Just a year ago, with only token opposition, ISIS was devouring land, just a bite or two away from Bagdad.  The blitzkrieg was unstoppable, and their caliphate within reach.

Large scale movement of men and machines is susceptible to air power.  The air strikes ended the advance.  Like a shark, when ISIS is not advancing it is dying.  The second part of the president's campaign was to arm and train locals.  Although not yet taking root in Syria,  the Kurds and to a lesser extent the Iraqi army, are reclaiming much of Iraq.

With the dream of the Caliphate fading, ISIS has turned to Al Qaeda style terrorism, albeit with a better media presence.   The Paris attacks are a sign of weakness.  The land war is morphing into a war of ideas.  ISIS depends on radicalizing western Muslims.

ISIS has been more successful with the marginalized Muslim community in Paris than with the more successful communities in America.   Unwittingly, Republicans are aiding and abetting ISIS.  Presidential candidates are falling all over one another trying to radicalize American Muslims.

Trump wants us to shut down mosques.  Cruz proposes only accepting Christian refugees from Syria. Even Kasich, who like most of the GOP wants to limit government and shut down agencies, proposes a new agency to spread Judeo Christian values.  Not to be out done, Republican governors are taking (unconstitutional) steps to preclude relocation of  Syrian refugees to their states.

Home grown terrorists are being fertilized with Republican bullshit.