So determined is the president to avoid the subject of Islamist, ISIS-inspired or ISIS-directed terrorism that he concluded his remarks with an astonishing insistence that “we need the strength and courage to change” our attitudes toward the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community.
Mateen proclaimed his loyalty to ISIL, reportedly yelled out his religious inclinations as he shot his victims, and is a registered Democrat--as well as being a "known wolf" who drew the attention of our police authorities several times for his hate.
But our president has urged our nation as a whole to change our attitudes, as if gay nightclubs nationwide are at risk of murder from some random straight baker who doesn't want to provide a cake for a gay wedding.
Are you effing kidding me?
Of course, the president's ability to deny that our enemies are the ones filled with hate is just the tip of the iceberg in this ability to blame Americans for the most hateful and murderous actions imaginable:
Christian conservatives are responsible for the mass shooting at a gay bar in Orlando because they "created this anti-queer climate," according to American Civil Liberties Union attorneys.
Mateen was a Moslem jihadi fanboy who was a registered Democrat. Yet somehow Christian conservatives built the climate that led to the mass murder at a gay nightclub by Mateen.
This endless debate about "why do they hate us?" never ends well because so many people here--including the man we elected to lead us in the war against our jihadi enemies--answer the question with some variation of America as the culprit.
As if who we are--whether it is our freedom of speech, the freedom of women to expose their skin in the sunlight, or the existence of gay nightclubs--should be something we must change to placate jihadis who hate everything.
And add little boys who love soccer to their list of what deserves hatred.
No. The better question we need to debate is why do we hate us?
Ever since 9/11, some of us have asked "why do they hate us?" We really need to ask why some of us hate us.
Which Mark Steyn echoed shortly thereafter:
In the case of an enfeebled West at twilight, the fault is wholly in us. After Sept. 11, 2001, many agonized progressives looked at America and its allies' relations with the Muslim world and argued that we need to ask ourselves: why do they hate us? As Brian Dunn, a Michigan blogger, put it, a more relevant question is: why do we hate us? After all, if all our institutions, from grade school to public broadcasting to Hollywood movies to Canadian "human rights" commissars, operate from the basic assumption that Western civilization is the font of racism, imperialism, oppression, exploitation and all the other ills of the world, why be surprised that the rest of humanity takes us at our word?
As I commented in that post:
Really, I don't blame our enemies for hating us. They are slime. Why wouldn't they hate us? But honestly, can't we in the West appreciate what we have and have the backbone to defend it?
Honestly, if we were a unified society proud of our achievements and what we represent, I really wouldn't worry about a bunch of pathetic cave dwellers who fantasize about destroying the West. We'd butcher them before lunch and be on with our lives.
But the sad fact is, many in the West would kneel before their beheaders and feel privileged to be killed by the jihadis.
I think that we will prevail before our Guilty Americans and their fellow travelers in the Western world can surrender in our name. But that confidence is based in part on the knowledge that writers such as Steyn are out their pointing out our suicidal tendencies.
We have built a country we can all be proud of, whether you are conservative or liberal, straight or gay, or whatever. We should have the confidence to defend our country against the scum like Mateen who can't enjoy what we built or tolerate what is disagreeable to him.
America didn't build the hate that led to 50 dead Americans in an Orlando nightclub and more than 50 wounded. And if we can't unite to defend ourselves against slime like Mateen, we are doomed to lose this Long War.
Let's get our heads out of our collective backsides and get on with killing jihadis and helping those in the Moslem world who reject the Islamist version of Islam that the jihadis want to impose on all Moslems.
