Paris
83 pieces tagged “Paris”, newest first.
After Paris, Empty Symbolism
The instant online symbol of global support for Paris after last week's attacks was a roughly rendered peace symbol with an Eiffel Tower in the middle of it. The French designer Jean Jullien sketched it as soon as he heard the news of the atrocity. He called it "Peace for Paris," and it immediately became a sensation on social media. Its success is a sign of the times. We have become experts at treacly online mourning. We take grotesque atrocities and launder them into trite symbols and slogans that are usually self-congratulatory and, of course, wholly ineffectual. The 19th-century author William Dean Howells once said, "Yes, what the American public wants is a tragedy with a happy ending." On social media, the happy ending is the widely shared and tweeted image or hashtag.
After Paris, Obama's Abandonment of Leadership
On Nov. 12, President Barack Obama said of ISIS: "What is true is that from the start, our goal has been first to contain, and we have contained them." On Nov. 13, ISIS-connected terrorists left 129 people dead and 352 wounded in Paris. ISIS naturally dominated Obama's Monday press conference at the G20 summit in Turkey. Yet although the president used the words "leader" and "leadership" fourteen times, the concept was, ironically, absent from his remarks. Speaking with as much passion as an instructional video on waste reclamation, he doubled down on his legacy of inaction, infighting and incompetence.
No Passport for Terror
Language is not a barrier in communicating the international outrage over the multiple terror attacks on innocent civilians in Paris on Friday. As French citizens mourned the deaths of over 130 people, leaders of other nations began rethinking their policies regarding refugees and how to deal with their own citizens who have traveled to fight alongside of ISIS. At least two of the suspected terrorists in Friday's attack had fought and trained with ISIS terrorists in Syria. As this information comes to light, Americans are rightfully asking what steps leaders in Congress are taking to ensure Americans' safety, since the policies of the Obama administration are escalating the risk.
The Left and the Attack on Paris
The left's reactions to the terror attack on Paris are in keeping with its tradition of getting almost everything wrong. Take Bernie Sanders, for example. At the Democratic presidential debate, one day after the Paris attack, the democratic socialist candidate made this observation about al-Qaida: "I would argue that the disastrous invasion of Iraq, something that I strongly opposed, has unraveled the region completely, and led to the rise of al-Qaida and to ISIS."
Obama's Pathological Blindness
It's hard to believe we twice elected a president who refuses to defend the United States. I think people who used to dismiss our criticism of President Obama as extreme are now realizing just how naive they were. On the morning before the ISIS terrorist attacks in Paris, Obama was bragging that ISIS is contained. Are you kidding me? Even before the attacks everyone knew ISIS was on the march and couldn't possibly be contained. What have you done to contain them, by the way? And why are we even talking about "containment" instead of wholesale destruction of a known enemy? What is Obama's strategy?
Clueless Before, After and Now
On Thursday, President Obama said this about ISIS: "We have contained them. I don't think they're gaining strength." Twenty-four hours later, ISIS massacred and wounded hundreds of people in Paris. At 5:45 ET Friday evening, Obama took to the airwaves again and said this about the supposedly contained ISIS: "This is an attack not just on Paris, it's an attack not just on the people of France, but this is an attack on all of humanity and the universal values that we share."
Massacre in Paris
Just hours before the terrorist attacks in Paris last week, for which ISIS has claimed responsibility, "Good Morning America" broadcast an interview with President Obama. In it, the president told host George Stephanopoulos, "I don't think they're gaining strength. What is true is that from the start, our goal has been first to contain and we have contained them. They have not gained ground in Iraq, and in Syria they'll come in, they'll leave, but you don't see this systemic march by ISIL across the terrain."
Read more