Obama on ISIS: ‘They’re not an existential threat to us’

[babylonsister]

Posted with permission.

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/obama-isis-theyre-not-existential-threat-us?cid=sm_fb_maddow

Obama on ISIS: ‘They’re not an existential threat to us’
03/24/16 11:20 AM—Updated 03/24/16 11:45 AM
By Steve Benen


As part of his trip to Argentina, President Obama co-hosted a press conference yesterday with President Mauricio Macri, and a reporter asked about the “optics” of Obama continuing with his schedule in the wake of the terrorist attack in Brussels. The American leader’s response raised some eyebrows.

“Groups like ISIL can’t destroy us, they can’t defeat us. They don’t produce anything. They’re not an existential threat to us. They are vicious killers and murderers who perverted one of the world’s great religions.

“And their primary power, in addition to killing innocent lives, is to strike fear in our societies, to disrupt our societies, so that the effect cascades from an explosion or an attack by a semi-automatic rifle.”

The president went on to explain that he believes in reminding terrorists about the weakness by rejecting their efforts to change how we live.

But for some on the right, there was an important problem. What does Obama mean ISIS isn’t “an existential threat”? How could he possibly say that?

I get the sense that there’s some confusion about the meaning of the word “existential,” so let’s take a moment to clarify. It refers to our existence – an existential threat is a threat that puts our existence in jeopardy. If, for example, a killer points a loaded gun at someone, the person at the other end of the barrel is facing an existential threat because the gunman might kill them.

ISIS is obviously dangerous and capable of deadly acts of terrorism, but to see these terrorists as an existential threat to our entire country is ridiculous. Not to put too fine a point on this, but the United States is a profoundly strong country, with the largest economy and largest military on the planet. ISIS, meanwhile, is a death cult with guns, suicide vests, and delusions of grandeur packaged in an effective online media operation.

As we’ve seen too often, ISIS militants kill innocents indiscriminately, and efforts to destroy the network must obviously continue. But to believe ISIS is an existential threat is to believe that the terrorists may succeed in eliminating the United States altogether. Our whole country will simply be wiped from the map.

And that’s bonkers. You can agree or disagree with the president’s decision to stick to his schedule, and attend diplomatic and social events abroad, but Obama’s assessment of the kind of threat ISIS poses to the United States was clearly correct.

[RepubliCON-Watch]

1. Good on Barack!

Not buying into the war-mongering

[Iliyah]

2. You know there is nothing BHO can do that would please the GOP.

Nothing.

Personally I do not want to live in fear. With fear, Isil wins. With fear, the GOP can control me.

[world wide wally]

3. Why is it that I cannot bring myself to feel that my life is constantly under threat from terrorists.

Last edited Fri Mar 25, 2016, 03:01 AM - Edit history (1)

I hate the assholes, but I sure as hell don't live in fear of them.

[redruddyred]

9. probably because it's not

you've seen the statistics.

[hay rick]

4. Google "probability of being killed in a terrorist attack."

You are more likely to be killed by falling furniture...you are twice as likely to be killed by a collision with a deer...4x as likely to drown in a bathtub...9x more likely to be killed by a toddler than a terrorist. Our media and most politicians aren't in the business of objective risk assessment.

[Bigmack]

5. Trump apparently won't rule out nukes against ISIS....

What's the current guess-timate from the spook community... about 30,000 fighters?

Fucking Americans are such wimps!!

30,000 Taliban had the country pissing themselves.

And now 30,000 ISIS crazoids has the country shitting themselves.

The WWII generation faced millions... and a few thousand... without air or naval power, has Americans all a-twit.

Jayzus Fucking Keeryst!

[Albertoo]

6. Existential threat, no. A big problem, yes.

ISIS and its other equivalents (Talebans, al Qaeda, etc, etc) will durably disrupt North Africa, the Levant and by contagion, Europe (see Brussels). +Pakistan? That's a big chunk of the world which will become unstable and dangerous.

Can't be good for them, can't be good for the US.

[melman]

11. It's a huge problem

People that try to minimize it drive me crazy(not talking about the President). This stuff about falling furniture is nonsense.

I will eat my f*****g hat if someone can find me an example of 130 people being killed by falling furniture in a day.

[Wounded Bear]

7. Nice of him to finally say it...

It's always been true, really. All the real damage from 9/11 was self-inflicted after the event.

[Marr]

8. Possibly. But as for 'perverting a great religion', let's be honest.

The people who are 'perverting' western religions are the ones who have, thankfully, tamed their faiths into shapes that can exist peacefully in a secular democracy. Fundamentalists strive to practice their faith as purely as possible, questioning none of their texts' passages.

[Angel Martin]

12. the problem

it seems every time Obama makes one of these statements, something bad happens.

Obama calls ISIS a JV team - they take over half of Iraq
Obama says ISIS getting weaker - Paris attacks
Obama says no known ISIS threat in US - San Bernadino

then last week in the Jeffrey Goldberg interview, Obama claimed that ISIS isn't an existential threat to the US but climate change is...

[former9thward]

13. Tell that to the victims in San Bernardino

Which he ignored.