January 23^rd

Today we have a column by Dana Milbank who devotes his efforts to encouraging us to be more afraid of Muslim extremists. He claims that Obama in his State of the Union speech did not sufficiently warn us of this risk; indeed this criticism is also directed at the Republican Party and the general population none of whom see the risk as important as he does. He is concerned that Obama was halfway through his speech before he mentioned, “…the challenges beyond our shores…” Milbank does not appear to be an Obama fan; Obama is described as, “full of swagger” and later he reminds us that Obama, “taunted republicans” by reminding them that he won his last two elections. Milbank, noted for taking events out of context, doesn’t mention that Obama’s comments on winning his last two elections came after republican applause when he observed that he wouldn’t be running for office again.

I would agree that we are not much concerned about terrorism striking this country even though terrorists are making massive inroads overseas. Note that the Yemini government has resigned. It is certainly true that the Republican Party which now has complete control of the country’s purse talks of defunding the Department of Homeland Security as punishment for Obama’s immigration policies. It is obvious that these people put their party’s interests well ahead of the country’s safety. Their next objective was to be a bill banning abortions but women in their own party revolted and the bill was confined to limiting how government funds could be used for abortion.  Both parties are willing to make symbolic gestures to appease their base. Obama proposes increasing the capital gains tax which has no chance of passing while republicans push legislation they know Obama will veto.

So, why the lethargy toward Muslim extremists? Maybe it’s a sense of proportion. For the most part these extremists have just been killing each other. In this country we kill over 30 thousand people a year in automobile accidents. That’s about ten times as many as were killed in the 9/11 attack.. My guess is that the folks in this country recognize that Islamic extremists are less a threat to them than a trip to the grocery store and they react accordingly.