Timothy Stanley

On Extremism

March 19, 2015 timothywstanley@me.com

Obama, after all, faces two overlapping but distinct challenges. One is an ideology: the totalitarian, even genocidal, vision espoused by ISIS. The second is a tactic: terrorism, which is available to people of all ideological stripes and which grows more dangerous as technology empowers individuals or groups to kill far more people far more quickly than they could have in ages past. Instead of assuming that these threats are the same, we should be debating the relative danger of each. By using 'violent extremism' rather than 'radical Islam,' Obama is staking out a position in that argument. It’s a position with which reasonable people can disagree. But cowardice has nothing to do with it.

Peter Beinhart, "What Does Obama Really Mean by 'Violent Extremism'?" - http://theatln.tc/1MPL7Wt

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