Tony Blair Blames Terrorism on "Flabby Liberalism"

Islamic terrorists struck at the heart of Europe this morning. President Obama marked the occasion by giving the matter fifty-two seconds in a speech celebrating his collaboration with Communist Cuba. Then he move on to a baseball game where he did the wave with Raoul Castro. At least, he did not repeat yesterday’s embarrassment: his limp-wristed tribute to the Cuban dictator.

For those who are curious to understand Obama’s reasoning, here it is. The terrorists want to disrupt baseball games. We must not let them disrupt baseball games. Having been president for more than seven years, Barack Obama has learned that much about terrorism. It would be sad if it were not pathetic.

Then again, our pusillanimous president bears some serious responsibility for what is happening in Europe. New York Times columnist Roger Cohen made the case this afternoon:

It is not working. President Obama’s slow-but-steady strategy to defeat the Islamic State is clawing back a little territory in Syria and Iraq but is doing nothing to dent the charismatic appeal of the militant group, disrupt its propaganda or prevent it from killing Europeans.

He continued:

Since the Paris attack, Obama has insisted that an anti-Islamic State coalition with European and other allies is getting the job done. More than 20 percent of the group’s territory has been recaptured. The president has suggested that more radical military action to crush the militants — essentially the deployment of infantry — would drag the United States into another Middle Eastern war and increase the appeal of the Islamic State. His argument has been: Defeating the Islamic State is militarily feasible, but then what?

This is a very high-risk policy — too high in my view. It allows the Islamic State to strut its pure evil in and from Raqqa. The Obama approach posits that the Islamic State can be beaten before European and American societies are undermined. Again today, speaking in Havana, he said, “We will defeat those who threaten the safety and security of people all around the world.” But the president does not say when victory will come against these forces he declined to identify, and time counts.

Now, if only Cohen could recognize that the European open borders policy he favors has also contributed to the debacle, we would have made progress.

Among those who have spoken out most cogently and who have provided the most apposite analysis of the war today against terror was… Tony Blair. One would like to think that a man of the political left, like Blair, could sway the minds of the European leftists who have been coddling Islamist terrorism. Alas, that would be far too optimistic.

Still, multiculturalists should read the tea leaves and the coffee grounds and see what is going on in their own nations, and ask themselves why they are doing nothing to stop it.

Of course, Blair might also have been addressing the leader of the free world. His term “flabby liberalism” is more polite than “limp-wristed liberalism.”

The Daily Mail reported Blair’s remarks:

Tony Blair has warned that ‘flabby liberalism’ is helping terrorists because Britain’s elite feel too ‘guilty’ to tackle the spread of extremism.

The former Labour prime minister said many in politics are now ‘unwilling to take people on’, fearing that they will be seen as intolerant of other cultures.

Speaking ahead of today’s terror atrocities in Brussels, he branded such an approach ‘ridiculous’ and said it had left our country’s liberal values vulnerable to abuse.

Mr Blair urged the establishment to ‘defeat violence’ by ‘attacking extremist thinking’ in schools and wider society. And he said there needs to be a tougher centre ground approach to migration and the refugee crisis, which for many politicians is a still a toxic issue.

He told the BBC: ‘We're in a situation where we have to fight back.

‘The centre has become flabby and unwilling to take people on. We concede far too much.

‘There's this idea that you're part of an elite if you think in terms of respectful tolerance towards other people. It's ridiculous.’

He added that too often moderate voices are defensive about arguing their case, fuelling a culture of extremism in religion and politics.

‘One of the problems with the West is that it constantly can be made to feel guilty about itself - and I'm not saying there aren't things we should feel guilty about,’ he said.

‘But you know, we shouldn't let people intimidate us into thinking there are certain values we shouldn't be standing up for.

One must applaud a political leader who tells the world and especially the American president to get over the guilt and to get engaged in the fight.