Cruz: Bowing at the Altar of Political Correctness Won’t Defeat Terrorism….

Source: Conservative Review | June 20, 2016 | Ted Cruz

Cruz: Bowing at the Altar of Political Correctness Won’t Defeat Terrorism. Here’s What Will.

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Of course, merely uttering the phrase “radical Islamic terrorism” is not some magical incantation that will make terrorism go away. But it is sheer folly to think, as the president apparently does, that a war can be fought and won without identifying and then coming to grips with the nature of the enemy.  Speaking openly and honestly about the threat is not a mere label.  It is an effort to understand our terrorist enemies and what motivates them so that we can devise a strategy to defeat them.

President Obama’s politically correct reluctance to attribute the terrorist threat we face with radical Islam hobbles our ability to combat it by discouraging counterterrorism agents from taking radical Islam into account when evaluating potential threats. The examples of Fort Hood, Boston, San Bernardino, and Orlando demonstrate the harmful consequences of this administration’s willful blindness.

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We must not sacrifice the safety and security of the United States at the altar of political correctness.  It is time to cast aside those niceties and fight this war with our eyes wide open. Because radical Islamic terrorists are motivated first and foremost by the internal logic of their ideology, no amount of goodwill or negotiation will satisfy them.  From their perspective, they have a religious duty to subdue or kill us no matter how we treat them.  Not surprisingly, therefore, politically correct efforts to avoid giving offense have not been and will never be reciprocated. 

To protect America from this terrorist threat will require defeating the radical Islamist ideology that inspires it.  And that, in turn, requires destroying the credibility of the ideology in the eyes of potential adherents, as well as preventing the ideology from taking root anywhere in the United States.

Radical Islamic terrorism thrives on its ability to inspire adherents who are often willing to martyr themselves in service to the ideology.  But who would become a martyr for a hopeless cause? If we are to have any chance of success in deterring terrorist attacks at home, we must go abroad to obliterate the sources of inspiration for these attacks—ISIS and al Qaeda.  The United States must leverage its economic and financial clout to cut off their sources of funding, including by pressuring governments like Saudi Arabia to prevent payments to these terrorist groups and the radical Islamic clerics who enable them.  But above all, the United States must be willing to wield whatever military might is necessary to utterly destroy ISIS and a resurgent al Qaeda.  The Obama administration’s half-measures—to put it charitably—have failed.

Another source of inspiration for radical Islam is the Muslim Brotherhood, whose ultimate mission is the spread of Islamic law and governance, by force if need be, to all corners of the earth. The Brotherhood’s influence is far-reaching, stretching all the way to the United States—indeed, straight to the Obama White House. Unsurprisingly, because of its ideological blinders, the Obama administration naively believes that the Muslim Brotherhood is a moderate group that the United States can work with.  But nothing could be further from the truth.  The Brotherhood is committed to violent jihad as a means of achieving its ends.  This is not only reflected in the fact that the Palestinian terrorist organization, Hamas, is affiliated with the Brotherhood, it is also reflected in the Brotherhood’s motto, which includes the exhortation that “[j]ihad is our way” and “[d]ying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.”  That is why I have introduced legislation that calls on the State Department to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization.  The Brotherhood should be marginalized, not legitimized.

Finally, the United States must take all necessary precautions to prevent radical Islamism from implanting itself within the American body politic.  To this end, I have introduced two pieces of legislation that would help shield the United States from the threat of radical Islamic terrorism.

The first is the Terrorist Refugee Infiltration Prevention Act (TRIPA).  This bill is a response to President Obama’s promise to bring 10,000 refugees from Syria to the United States this year, despite his own FBI Director’s testimony to Congress that there is no way to ensure the refugees are not potential terrorists. 

TRIPA would temporarily bar any refugee who is from a country that is controlled in substantial part by ISIS, al Qaeda, or any other designated foreign terrorist organization, including specifically Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen.  Given the existential nature and scope of the threat radical Islamic terrorism poses, the limitations on our ability to screen the flood of refugees, and the obligations of our government to provide for the safety and security of all Americans, we simply cannot accept refugees from countries that have a significant terrorist presence until the terrorist threat has been eliminated. 

The second bill is the Expatriate Terrorist Act (ETA).  This legislation would allow for American citizens who go overseas and join a terrorist group like ISIS to lose their citizenship.  This will help prevent citizens from returning to the United States to wage jihad on America.

To be sure, these proposals are just a small part of the comprehensive anti-terror strategy we must adopt, if we are to reverse the missteps of the current administration.  Much more needs to be done, such as improving our counterterrorism capabilities, securing the border and hardening our immigration system—especially the asylum process, to prevent terrorist infiltration—and empowering more Americans to bear arms in defense of themselves and their neighbors.  It is unfortunate that the Democrats would rather use a horrific terrorist attack to advance partisan ends like gun control.  Until we get serious about defeating radical Islamic terrorism, we will not be prepared to stop future attacks that are sure to come.

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