Republicans and Democrats are criticizing President Barack Obama for not branding the Islamic State group with the “Islamic extremism” tag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There’s former Florida GOP Rep. Joe Scarborough blasting the president on his MSNBC morning show. House Armed Services Committee member Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, an Iraq war veteran, says Obama “misses the point” about the ideology behind the group’s brutal murders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Senate Armed Services Committee member Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., took to Twitter last week. “We will never enjoy peaceful coexistence with radi\u00ad<\/span>cal Islam because its followers are committed to destroying us and our way of life,” he wrote. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “Mr. President, the challenges we face ARE new,” Graham added in another tweet. “[The Islamic State] is a terrorist army which actually holds\/maintains territory the size of American states.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Scarborough, military leaders and many lawmakers are fond of saying the Islamic State group is intent on carrying out an “apocalyptic” end-of-days-or-nothing vision. Therefore, these folks say, the US must do more militarily to wipe the Islamic State off the map.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The “Morning Joe” host last week used an Atlantic Monthly magazine article to support this stance. But a close read of contributing editor Graeme Wood’s article \u2014 and a sober examination of the Islamic State group’s actions \u2014 suggests all of this talk is playing right into the group’s hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The biggest proponent of an American invasion is the Islamic State itself,” Wood writes. “The provocative videos, in which a black-hooded executioner addresses President Obama by name, are clearly made to draw America into the fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “An invasion would be a huge propaganda victory for jihadists worldwide … they all believe that the United States wants to embark on a modern-day Crusade and kill Muslims,” he writes. “Yet another invasion and occupation would confirm that suspicion, and bolster recruitment.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Islamic State leaders believe, Wood notes, “that the armies of Rome will mass to meet the armies of Islam in northern Syria.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The US, playing the part of Rome, seems to be following the group’s script, with around 2,600 US forces already back in Iraq.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wood also points out the Islamic State group places great importance on Dabiq, a Syrian city near Aleppo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “It is here, the Prophet reportedly said, that the armies of Rome will set up their camp,” Wood writes. “The armies of Islam will meet them, and Dabiq will be Rome’s Waterloo or its Antietam.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Beheadings. Mass murders. Taunting. All captured in carefully produced videos and splashed on YouTube \u2014 all clearly intended to hit Americans where we are perhaps most vulnerable: our emotions. To many Americans, it all feels<\/i> like an existential threat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Americans \u2014 including their politicians and military commanders \u2014 put a premium on protecting minority populations and exacting revenge when their own are killed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Islamic State leaders know their enemy well. By taking and murdering prisoners to which they have easy access and conquering mostly unguarded lands, the group is trying to lure tens of thousands of modern-day Roman troops back to a Levant that has been so unkind to them. Will Rome take the bait?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Republicans and Democrats are criticizing President Barack Obama for not branding the Islamic State group with the “Islamic extremism” tag.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":77691,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[8,33,19],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1090],"class_list":["post-36006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-congress","category-home","category-pentagon"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"HA7KZ2MHVFFDLHQVGI55OLTGL4","arc_canonical_url":"\/2015\/02\/22\/column-for-america-trap-is-set\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n