NewsMax, Thursday, 29 Jan 2015

A White House's characterization Wednesday of the Taliban as an "armed insurgency" rather radical Islamic terrorists is another example of the Obama administration's failure to grasp the gravity of the situation, retired Army Col. Derek Harvey said Thursday on Newsmax TV's "America's Forum."

"It is very dangerous because it continues to show that there's intellectual dishonesty by the administration," said Harvey, who was joined by former New York Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik to discuss the Obama administration's paralysis in dealing with terror groups.

"They refuse to define the threat and importantly, it seems that they don't understand the threat. Words do matter.

"The Taliban is an insurgency, it's a terrorist organization that is interlinked with al-Qaida, for that matter, ISIS is an insurgency too, but it's also a terrorist organization. They are splitting hairs and they're being intellectually dishonest," Harvey said.

The Taliban has been recognized as a terrorist organization since 9/11, Kerik added...

Until the Obama administration clearly identifies who the enemy is, there can be no effective strategy or resolution to eradicate them, according to Kerik.

"Whether you call it ISIS or ISIL or al-Qaida or the Taliban or Hamas or Hezbollah, there's 50 different names that I can think of right now relating to radical Muslim extremist that want the demise of this country and Israel and others that live in freedom, others that practice Christianity," Kerik said.

"Until we realize who the enemy is and we become offensive against that enemy in a very, very broad range, we're not going to be able to win this war."

The men also weighed in on recent comments made by retired Lt. Gen Michael Flynn, the former Defense Intelligence Agency chief, who told a group of defense industry workers that the administration is running scared from the Islamic State instead of unleashing an all-out assault to rid the world of the extremists.

"You cannot defeat an enemy you do not admit exists," Flynn said, referring to the administration's refusal to use the phrase "Islamic militants" when referring to jihadists...

President Obama and his advisers need to look at the big picture and heed the warnings about Muslim extremists, including Iran, from U.S. allies such as Israel, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, Harvey said.

"They understand the threats in that part of the world and they understand that Iran is a threat," he said. "Somehow we're in denial in this country about the nature of the threat both from Iran and our failure to identify the Islamic hardcore extremist threat."

Kerik agreed, cautioning that if the U.S. doesn't react to the warnings already given, "we're never going to get it and we're going to be responding to this stuff forever.

"At some point and time, we have to get offensive, we have to be proactive and pre-emptive in fighting the fight and being prepared in this country for the battle we face, which is going to be decades to come," he said.

"This isn't going to go away no time soon."

Pray that President Obama and his administration would stop being politically correct and denying the threat posed by radical Islam in its many different manifestations around the world. Pray that the USA and other nations can be led by the Lord to adopt a clear and comprehensive strategy to combat and overcome worldwide terrorism so our nations can be set free from this international scourge that is causing so much devastation and horror.