"Pop Off"

After the shock of the heinous Islamic terror attacks has waned, progressives led by Barack Obama have begun their predictable condemnation of calls for aggressive military action and arguments against allowing 10,000 Syria refugees (inevitably peppered with ISIS operatives as they are in Europe) entry into the United States. From their position at the peak of moral certitude, progressives use every cliche in the book—"Americans don't want war," "America is the Land of Immigrants," "Our values do not allow us to single out one religious group for profiling," and on and on.

Progressive arguments on this subject always seem to assume the worst in America—for them a racist society on the verge of a pogrom against "the other." Using the internment of Japanese Americans in World War II as their cheap argument, almost every progressive pundit worries that any attempt to profile, say radical Mosques (and there are any), will lead to a slippery slope in which all Muslims will be sent to internment camps or worse. The fact is that there is absolutely no evidence that this would happen and even less evidence that our constitution would allow it.

When asked whether the United States is at war with radical Islam during Saturday's debate, Hillary Clinton tripped over herself to tell the left-wing base of the Democratic party that she doesn't advocate "a war with Islam." Of course, that wasn't the question—exactly who does advocate "a war with Islam?"

The editors of The Wall Street Journal get it exactly right when they comment on Obama's criticism of those suggesting that we put the immigration of Syrian refugees on hold:

Mr. Obama was reacting to the political stampede, following Friday’s jihadist massacre in Paris, against the President’s decision to accept at least 10,000 of the millions of refugees fleeing Islamic State and Syria’s civil war. Every GOP presidential candidate we’ve heard is now calling for restricting the refugee flow into the U.S. At least 12 Governors are taking steps to bar them from their states, and Congress will vote sooner or later on blocking funds for Syrian refugee resettlement.

What did Mr. Obama expect? It would be nice, and we would prefer, if Americans accepted Syrians the way they have so many war refugees over the decades—from the Jews of Europe, to the Hmong and Vietnamese, to Cubans and Afghans. The West needs loyal Muslims of moderate beliefs to help defeat the radicals; we shouldn’t want to alienate them.

But refugees from those earlier foreign conflicts didn’t include agents who would continue the war on U.S. shores. As France is learning, Islamic State is only too happy to use the Syrian diaspora to plant its agents to kill the French. At least one of the killers on Friday is believed to have migrated from Syria through Greece and into Paris. Nearly all of the other migrants, Muslim and Christian, have no such bloody intent. But can you blame the average American for refusing to volunteer as a next door neighbor?

Mr. Obama was especially harsh on those, like Jeb Bush and Ted Cruz, who say Christian refugees should be a priority. “When some of those folks themselves come from families who benefited from protection when they were fleeing political persecution, that’s shameful,” Mr. Obama said. “That’s not American. That’s not who we are. We don’t have religious tests to our compassion.”

But Messrs. Bush and Cruz are right that Christians are under particular threat from Islamic State. If they aren’t killed for jihadist sport, they must convert to Islam or die. Their daughters are raped and forced into Muslim marriages. Their churches are blown up. The U.S. would have been right to accept and save more Jews from Nazi genocide in the 1930s and 1940s. Syrian Christians are no different today.

It's interesting. Barack Obama and his Team of 2s used a potential genocide (it was a ruse) to sponsor the overthrow of Libya's Mohamar Kaddafi and turn Libya into a failed state. But ideological blindness doesn't allow Obama and his Team of 2s to recognize an actual Christian genocide is being perpetrated by ISIS and that Christians, if anyone, should be recognized as legitimate refugees and allowed entry.

When Obama publicly suggests (in a foreign capital, no less) that serious men with serious opposing ideas "pop off" and have no alternative ideas that are workable (a blatant lie), he tells us much more about himself than he does about the conflict we face or the leaders, such as Francois Hollande, who do have the courage and the will to face it head on.

A few brave Democrats are beginning to question Obama's judgment and leadership. Many more need to do so. If they do not, their party will be tarnished with Obama's legacy of weakness, indecision, and failure for a generation.