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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFlashback: Counterterrorism Experts claim ISIS threat "distorted" and "a farce"
"WASHINGTON The violent ambitions of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria have been condemned across the world: in Europe and the Middle East, by Sunni nations and Shiite ones, and by sworn enemies like Israel and Iran. Pope Francis joined the call for ISIS to be stopped.
But as President Obama prepares to send the United States on what could be a yearslong military campaign against the militant group, American intelligence agencies have concluded that it poses no immediate threat to the United States. Some officials and terrorism experts believe that the actual danger posed by ISIS has been distorted in hours of television punditry and alarmist statements by politicians, and that there has been little substantive public debate about the unintended consequences of expanding American military action in the Middle East"
Daniel Benjamin, who served as the State Departments top counterterrorism adviser during Mr. Obamas first term, said the public discussion about the ISIS threat has been a farce, with members of the cabinet and top military officers all over the place describing the threat in lurid terms that are not justified.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/11/world/middleeast/struggling-to-gauge-isis-threat-even-as-us-prepares-to-act.html?_r=2
rgbecker
(4,834 posts)After they capsized and got all their stuff wet, I asked what they were up to and they swam off to their battleship, anchored about a quarter mile off, without answering. I'm back safe in my basement now while Mom warms up some hot chocolate. I'm convinced, from everything I've read, that this is the end of Freedom, Liberty and the ol' USA.
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)They can't even hold a dusty town like Tikrit or Kobani against a rag tag army....their danger to America is drastically overblown for only one reason - WAR.
Even Israel is little afraid..and they are not seperated by half a planet from them.
What is the point of spending a trillion dollars a year to not live in fear when it is still fear America is living in?