If there's one thing Barack Obama knows, it's how to keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of radical Islamists, right? Right? Oh.
Well then, when it comes to the even more essential challenge of keeping nuclear weapons away from ISIS, who better to put on the job? The only silver lining here is that he's not working on it alone. Then again, he didn't negotiate the Iran deal on his own either. Plenty of similarly delusional world leaders signed on, and many of the same nations will be among the 50 who sent representatives to a White House summit called by Obama:
U.S. officials say they've worked with the Belgians over the years to reduce the amount of nuclear material at the facility where the scientist works.
"And certainly the video footage is of concern and suggests there is at least some interest by ISIL," said Laura Holgate, one of the president's top advisers on weapons of mass destruction and arms control.
She added that while there's no information that a broader plot exists, the threat of terrorists trying to launch an improvised attack with a nuclear device has long been a concern of security officials worldwide.
U.S. officials estimate there's some 2000 metric tons of material being housed in civilian and military programs around the world that could be used to craft nuclear weapons.
That fact, coupled with the recent terrorist attacks and the danger of more is hung heavily over the summit as it got underway on Thursday.
"Given the continued threat posed by organizations such as the terrorist group we call ISIL, or ISIS, we'll also join allies and partners in reviewing our counterterrorism efforts, to prevent the world's most dangerous networks from obtaining the world's most dangerous weapons," the president wrote in an opinion piece for the Washington Post.
Because of the Brussels attacks and a new sense of urgency, President Obama will preside over a session that focuses on the effort to "degrade and destroy," the Islamic State. Most of the nations attending the summit also are part of the 60 member coalition that the U.S. has assembled to fight ISIS. White House officials say that various members need to step up their contributions to the coalition's counterterroism operations.
What is it with Obama constantly using the word "degrade" to describe what he wants to do to ISIS? Normally I wouldn't zero in so much on language, but Obama is ideologically vain in the extreme, and he especially dislikes using language that suggests a commitment he's not really on board with. Sure, he did say "and destroy" in the very next breath, but why not just say flat out, "We're going to destroy ISIS"? Why slip in the weasel word, unless you intend to be a weasel about the execution of the task?
Anyway, there's clearly a difference between negoating with Iran - an established nation-state - and trying to keep nukes away from an ad hoc terrorist group. And it seems to me the latter would be harder to do, which is not a good sign considering Obama failed so miserably at the former. He was so desperate to get a deal signed that he essentially agreed to every Iranian demand and agreed to a completely unworkable inspection regime with so many appeals there's no way Iran can be stopped.
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If that's the best you can do there, how are you going to stop an organization that you're not sure you want to destroy, but might only want to "degrade"? Because the only way you can be sure ISIS will not get nukes is to erase ISIS from the face of the Earth. Or you could reassure yourself that once ISIS has nukes, they won't have them for long. Because they'll use them. Does anyone seriously doubt that?
And yet this might pass for a silver lining in the warped minds of Obama and John Kerry. Hopefully someone else at this summit takes the lead in developing the strategies, because we're in trouble if it's left to these two.
If there's one thing Barack Obama knows, it's how to keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of radical Islamists, right? Right? Oh.
Well then, when it comes to the even more essential challenge of keeping nuclear weapons away from ISIS, who better to put on the job? The only silver lining here is that he's not working on it alone. Then again, he didn't negotiate the Iran deal on his own either. Plenty of similarly delusional world leaders signed on, and many of the same nations will be among the 50 who sent representatives to a White House summit called by Obama:
