The Theatre of Distraction

House Democrats have gone all-in with the theatre of distraction. They have staged a sit-in on the floor of the House of Representatives to force a vote on their latest piece of gun-control legislation.

Obviously, this pathetic bit of political theatre will make it impossible for the Republican-controlled House to do any such thing. For now the Democrats are reduced to saying that they have raised awareness.

Yet, the more the nation becomes aware of the Obama administration’s dereliction in dealing with Islamist terrorism, beginning with its inability to call it by its name, the more Democrats feel obliged to hijack the national conversation and to make it all about guns. Or about anything but terrorism.

As the administration insists that it cannot pronounce the term Islamic terrorism it draws more attention to its own failures to deal with the problem, either at home or abroad.

Of course, once you make guns the issue, you exculpate those who are committing the crimes. And it is not just terrorists who are committing gun violence. Under the aegis of Democratic politicians and its Obamaphile mayor the city of Chicago has become a free fire zone. By shifting the focus to guns, to the NRA and Christian Republicans the Democrats are standing up for their own constituents, many of whom committed these acts. After all, Omar Mateen was a registered Democrat.

And yet, the more you tell the criminals and the terrorists that they are not responsible for their actions, the more you give them motive and incentive to act. The more you use their actions as political ammunition to attack Republicans the more you make them feel that their cause is righteous. They are no longer just common criminals or deranged terrorists: they are social justice warriors.

Making the issue “guns” rewards criminal behavior and makes the problem worse.

It ought to be fairly clear that terrorism will not stop until it becomes too costly for the terrorists. It will not stop until they are decisively humiliated, shown to the world as losers and derelicts. Shooting one terrorist leader is not enough. It seems that  Peter Quinn was right: we ought to turn Raqqa into  parking lot.

The Obama administration, while conducting some successful drone strikes, thus doing its best to keep the conflict at arms’ length, is clearly responsible for the terrorist attacks and the increasing gun violence in America.

But, it has never taken responsibility for anything bad that has happened on its watch. Thus, it has failed to contain Islamic terrorism, but is out front with an effort to blame someone else. It is too late to blame George W. Bush, so it is reduced to turning the House of Representatives into a circus.

As if that were not bad enough, Attorney General Loretta Lynch stuck both feet in her mouth by taking a page out of the Hippie anti-war manual. She declared:

Our most effective response to terror and hatred is compassion, unity and love. 

It’s such a pathetic thing to say that you have to assume that the words were put in her mouth by some flunky at the White House.

Of course, this is the same politicized Justice Department that tried to excise all references to Islam from the transcript of Mateen’s 911 call. And, even after it was shamed into releasing an unredacted version, it still could not bring itself to call Allah by his name. In the final transcript Allah is translated as God.

Anyway, it’s easier than explaining why our crack law enforcement authorities have lost track of Mateen’s wife. Perhaps she was a co-conspirator. Perhaps she has blood on her hands. If ever she is caught and brought to justice, the nation will be witness to a grand public drama regarding her beliefs, her religion and her ethnicity—she is Palestinian.

And, it is better to lose her than to risk such a spectacle.

And there is nothing new about these efforts to absolve the Obama administration of all responsibility. Noah Rothman explains on the Commentary site that even the straight-shooting FBI Director, James Comey got caught up in the administration spin game regarding the shooting at a Chattanooga Army recruiting station:

In November of last year, FBI Director James Comey insisted that we may never know precisely why 24-year-old Mohammad Yousuf Adbulazeez attacked and killed four U.S. Marines and one sailor that summer at an armed forces recruiting center in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

“We’re still trying to make sure we understand Abdulazeez, his motivations, and associations, in a really good way,” Comey said nearly four months after the attack. “Sometimes the way we investigate requires us to keep information secret. That’s a good thing. We don’t want to smear people.” 

And you were expecting this guy to conduct a fair and impartial investigation of Hillary Clinton’s emails!