Countering Violent Extremism

The State Department has requested from the public ideas for countering violent extremism. I have written extensively on this and the following is a paper of mine that will be presented at the UN sponsored International Conference on The Evolution of Human Rights Concepts on March 1, 2015, in Tehran, Iran.

The paper has several parts:

What Medical Ethics Have to Offer both Moral and Political Philosophy
(Entire Paper)

• Equality as an Affirmation of Our Common Humanity
• United States Constitutional Democracy and American Exceptionalism
• Intermediary Institutions and Civil Society
• Moral and Political Philosophy
• Why now?

“At the time of a clash of civilizations it is not unusual for both sides to re-examine, define, and even sometimes codify their basic values and cultural institutions in order to both preserve and convey their basic values and traditions. At the time of the fall of communism in the Soviet Union and in Eastern Europe, the United States did this poorly. It appears that we are making a similar mistake in our war against terrorism, which is very much a battle of ideas and ideologies and will have to be understood as such for any chance of a long-term resolution and reconciliation. We are missing a defining opportunity in the history of the moral and political philosophy of the liberal tradition; first, by not defining our primary moral value as equality, understood as a respect for the dignity and worth of our common humanity; and second, by not defining our government as a constitutional democracy, which is the only way to convey both the substantive and the procedural concepts of equality that it incorporates.”

“Medical ethics have a lot to offer the larger fields of moral and political philosophy at this particular time in history, in part, because they have the capacity to accommodate pluralism in a global community without alienation or coercion.”

Two Views on ISIS

Peggy Noonan points out the importance of the essay on The Atlantic on ISIS -- “What ISIS Really Wants” (See previous blog)

WSJ -- Peggy Noonan -- An Administration Adrift on Denial

“Why won’t the president think clearly about the nature of the Islamic State?”

“Great essays tell big truths. A deeply reported piece in next month’s Atlantic magazine does precisely that, and in a way devastating to the Obama administration’s thinking on ISIS.”

“What ISIS Really Wants,” by contributing editor Graeme Wood, is going to change the debate.

Fareed Zakaria defends the president’s deliberate language of “violent extremism”

WP -- Fareed Zakaria -- The limits of the “Islamic” label

President Obama stands accused of political correctness for his unwillingness to accuse groups such as the Islamic State of “Islamic extremism,” choosing a more generic term, “violent extremism.”

"But far from being a scholar concerned with describing the phenomenon accurately, the president is deliberately choosing not to emphasize the Islamic State’s religious dimension for political and strategic reasons. After all, what would be the practical consequence of describing the group, also known as ISIS, as Islamic? Would the West drop more bombs on it? Send in more soldiers to fight it? No, but it would make many Muslims feel that their religion had been unfairly maligned. And it would dishearten Muslim leaders who have continually denounced the Islamic State as a group that does not represent Islam."

What ISIS Really Wants

The Atlantic -- Graeme Wood -- What ISIS Really Wants

"The Islamic State is no mere collection of psychopaths. It is a religious group with carefully considered beliefs, among them that it is a key agent of the coming apocalypse."

"We can gather that their state rejects peace as a matter of principle; that it hungers for genocide; that its religious views make it constitutionally incapable of certain types of change, even if that change might ensure its survival; and that it considers itself a harbinger of—and headline player in—the imminent end of the world."

"The reality is that the Islamic State is Islamic. Very Islamic. Yes, it has attracted psychopaths and adventure seekers, drawn largely from the disaffected populations of the Middle East and Europe. But the religion preached by its most ardent followers derives from coherent and even learned interpretations of Islam."

"Many mainstream Muslim organizations have gone so far as to say the Islamic State is, in fact, un-Islamic…. But Muslims who call the Islamic State un-Islamic are typically, as the Princeton scholar Bernard Haykel, the leading expert on the group’s theology, told me, “embarrassed and politically correct, with a cotton-candy view of their own religion” that neglects “what their religion has historically and legally required.” Many denials of the Islamic State’s religious nature, he said, are rooted in an “interfaith-Christian-nonsense tradition.”

"In fact, much of what the group does looks nonsensical except in light of a sincere, carefully considered commitment to returning civilization to a seventh-century legal environment, and ultimately to bringing about the apocalypse."

ISIS is what it says it is -- a radical Muslim terrorist group that uses atrocities, genocide and ethnic cleansing as philosophy and a recruiting tool.

Reuters -- Sisi warns of response after Islamic State kills 21 Egyptians in Libya

“Islamic State released a video on Sunday that appeared to show the beheadings of 21 Egyptian Christians in Libya”

WP -- Charles Krathammer -- Crusaders and Appeasers

“This passivity — strategic, syntactical, ideological — is more than just a reaction to the perceived overreach of the Bush years. Or a fear of failure. Or bowing to the domestic left. It is, above all, rooted in Obama’s deep belief that we — America, Christians, the West — lack the moral authority to engage, to project, i.e., to lead.”

The Burdens on the Working Middle Class

The working middle class has been paying for corruption and greed at the top of our economic system and for entitlements at the bottom of our economic system. The Democrats want to focus just on the corporations and the top 1%. The Republicans want to focus on entitlements and the unsustainable rising national debt.

Remember that stealing just $500 is a felony. The very large regulatory fees which have been paid by just about every bank, insurance company, pharmaceutical company, and investment company are just considered the cost of doing business.

S&P got off easy

HSBC's clients linked to dictators, arms dealers and tax dodgers

Opposing ISIS

BBC -- Islamic State: Mid-East press urges Islamic discourse reform

Amid the condemnations, commentators are discussing new ways to fight IS ideologically, two days after the jihadist group circulated a 20-minute graphic video showing Moaz al-Kasasbeh being burnt alive.

WP -- Obama warns at National Prayer Breakfast of those who use religion to wage war

“We see faith driving us to do right,” Obama said. “We also see faith being twisted and distorted, used as a wedge, or worse, sometimes as a weapon.”

CBS News - Jordan bombs ISIS targets, vows to "eliminate" militants

"For you, the enemies of Islam," read one message.

Leaders of Germany and France launch new diplomatic effort to ease Ukraine crisis

BBC -- Ukraine crisis: Leaders in new diplomatic push for peace

Maybe you missed this one.

BBC -- Russia: Vodka minimum price cut over economic woes

Three views on Foreign Policy

RealClearPolitics -- Obama Dithers While Terrorism Escalates

Many liberals give to Islam a deference they accord no other religion, which is odd, since so many radical adherents commit genocide, torture gays, treat women as chattels.

To defeat an enemy, the first, indispensable step is to know him, said Sun Tzu, after 2,500 years still considered the greatest strategist of all time.

NY Times -- Retroactively Authorizing War

They went largely unnoticed, four words President Obama ad-libbed during the State of the Union address last month as he asked lawmakers to provide legal cover for America’s military intervention in Iraq and Syria.

WP -- Will Washington allow the pursuit of positive foreign policy?

President Obama’s trip to India was strategically important, symbolically resonant and deftly executed.

If the United States can partner with India and Indonesia (in addition to its alliance with Japan), it is far more likely that Asia — and the world — will be characterized by free trade, multilateralism and rules-based systems. Stronger relations with Indonesia could have an impact on the broader debate about reform in the Muslim world.

Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush

Fox News -- Romney announces he will not run for president in 2016

"I believe that one of our next generation of Republican leaders, one who may not be as well known as I am today, one who has not yet taken their message across the country, one who is just getting started, may well emerge as being better able to defeat the Democrat nominee," Romney said. "In fact, I expect and hope that to be the case."

Btreitbart.com -- CHUCK TODD: THIS WAS ABOUT JEB BUSH IMMIGRATION FEUD WITH ROMNEY

"Romney was Jeb’s candidate in early ’07, and Romney flipped on immigration and Jeb never forgave him. He thought the way he used immigration as a wedge against McCain, he never forgave him."

Two Views on Confronting Radical Islam

• Fareed Zakaria:

  WP -- (text)
  The West’s four-part strategy to deal with radical Islam

  CNN -- (video)
  The West’s four-part strategy to deal with radical Islam

• Lindsey Graham

  Fox -- (Video)
  Graham Criticizes Obama for Foreign Policy Failures

Saudi Arabia Challenged by Iran, Yemen, and ISIS

• National Review -- Charles Krauthammer The Emerging Iranian Empire

  “The Israelis can defeat any conventional attack. Not so the Gulf Arabs. To the north and west, they see Iran creating a satellite “Shiite Crescent” stretching to the Mediterranean and consisting of Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon. To their south and west, they see Iran gaining proxy control of Yemen. And they are caught in the pincer.”

• CNN -- New Saudi King's big challenges: Yemen, Iran and ISIS

  To the south, Yemen is in chaos. To the north, the militant group ISIS is wreaking havoc in Iraq and Syria. More broadly, Saudi Arabia remains locked in a regional cold war with Iran.

• WP -- Saudi Arabia’s Coming Struggle

  “But the paradox of Saudi Arabia is that the Western-facing kingdom has depended for its legitimacy on a pact with conservative Muslim religious leaders.”

The Stagnant Lot of Middle Class Workers

• Real Clear Politics -- Eugene Robinson What is the GOP Thinking?

  There they go again. Given control of Congress and the chance to frame an economic agenda for the middle class, the first thing Republicans do is tie themselves in knots over ... abortion and rape.

  “People, we are in an economic recovery whose fruits are not reaching the middle class. We have a crucial need to address U.S. infrastructure and competitiveness. We face myriad challenges abroad, including Islamic terrorism and global warming. If a renewal of the culture wars is your answer, Republicans, you totally misheard the question.”

• LA Times -- Advice from Democratic advisors David Axelrod and James Carville

  “the overriding issue on voters' minds is the economy — specifically, the stagnant lot of middle class workers. The candidate with the most convincing remedy for that problem is likely to win.”

Presidential Election 2016 Demographics

The Republicans can probably not win the 2016 presidential election without winning Florida and Ohio. If Republicans do win these two states, then Virginia becomes critical for the Democrats to win. (See the demographics) Watch for the Republican presidential and vice-presidential candidates to come from Florida and Ohio and the Democratic vice-presidential candidate to come from Virginia.

TheWeek -- Democrats ought to be terrified about losing these 3 critical swing states in 2016

“In three states that were critical to Obama's wins in 2008 and 2012 — Nevada, Colorado, and Virginia — Republicans showed remarkable resurgence and strength in 2014….Bankable wins here meant Democrats could forgo traditional battlegrounds like Florida and Ohio and still win an Electoral College majority.”

Free Online Education

The basic materials for almost any educational topic are now free and available from world class universities and many other sources.

• Washington Post -- Donor seeks to offer ‘freshman year for free’ through online college courses

  “Steven B. Klinsky’s idea is for students to take foundational courses through the online venture edX that would prepare them for College Board examinations in various subjects. Those who pass enough Advanced Placement or College-Level Examination Program tests conceivably would be able to enter college as sophomores. That would cut the price of a bachelor’s degree by a quarter.”

• Washington Post -- Obama to unveil proposal for tuition-free community college

  “Obama will unveil the idea Friday in a trip to Knoxville, Tenn. There, he will call attention to an access program enacted last year under Gov. Bill Haslam (R). Using state lottery funds, the Tennessee Promise offers to cover whatever tuition bills at community colleges can’t be paid through other public grants.”

• www.Top20education.com

  A curated (hand-selected), open access (free) internet directory of the top 20 websites for each of the education topics.

• Majority of U.S. public school students are in poverty

  For the first time in at least 50 years, a majority of U.S. public school students come from low-income families, according to a new analysis of 2013 federal data, a statistic that has profound implications for the nation.

Boko Haram in Nigeria

Small tyrannies if not confronted become larger tyrannies

The Telegraph -- Boko Haram is now a mini-Islamic State, with its own territory

“Boko Haram controls about 20,000 square miles of territory and is fast becoming a terrorist state razing villages and killing innocent victims.”

“The army may also lack the resolve. Last year, the federal government allocated 20 per cent of its budget to the armed forces - over £4 billion. Yet precious little trickled down to the soldiers in the frontline, who remain poorly armed and equipped. Instead, a large proportion of the military budget simply disappeared into the pockets of senior officers.”

Yahoo News -- Escape from Boko Haram: 'I kept stepping on dead bodies'

“Local officials this week said the attack forced at least 20,000 people from Baga and other settlements in and around Lake Chad to flee, many of them across the border.”

India Times -- Nigeria seeks support after 'deadliest' Boko Haram attack

Nigeria's military — west Africa's largest — has faced repeated criticism for failing to end the six-year Islamist insurgency, as well as allegations of human rights abuses.

Challenges for Jeb Bush

What the heck is Mitt Romney doing?

“What [Mitt Romney] sees -- and wants to stop -- is the momentum in the major donor community toward former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who has been the most aggressive potential candidate in the 2016 field since the 2014 midterms ended. Bush, according to one report, has set a goal of raising $100 million over the first three months of 2015 in hopes of convincing lots of other candidates that making the race is a fool's errand.”

As Scott Walker readies for 2016, Jeb Bush should be worried

“...Bush would be wise not to take Walker so lightly. Right now, Walker is the candidate who can most realistically unite the base and the establishment wings of the party. One only needs to glance at conservative media to see that the Republican base has little time for Jeb Bush. (See Noah Rothman at Hot Air, for example.) Walker, by contrast, is a hero to the grassroots after winning multiple battles with Wisconsin Democrats and unions.”

Egypt’s Sisi: Islamic “Thinking” Is “Antagonizing the Entire World”

Egypt’s Sisi: Islamic “Thinking” Is “Antagonizing the Entire World”

The relevant excerpt from Sisi’s speech follows (translation by Michele Antaki):

I am referring here to the religious clerics. We have to think hard about what we are facing—and I have, in fact, addressed this topic a couple of times before. It’s inconceivable that the thinking that we hold most sacred should cause the entireumma [Islamic world] to be a source of anxiety, danger, killing and destruction for the rest of the world. Impossible!

That thinking—I am not saying “religion” but “thinking”—that corpus of texts and ideas that we have sacralized over the years, to the point that departing from them has become almost impossible, is antagonizing the entire world. It’s antagonizing the entire world!

Is it possible that 1.6 billion people [Muslims] should want to kill the rest of the world’s inhabitants—that is 7 billion—so that they themselves may live? Impossible!

I am saying these words here at Al Azhar, before this assembly of scholars and ulema—Allah Almighty be witness to your truth on Judgment Day concerning that which I’m talking about now.

All this that I am telling you, you cannot feel it if you remain trapped within this mindset. You need to step outside of yourselves to be able to observe it and reflect on it from a more enlightened perspective.

I say and repeat again that we are in need of a religious revolution. You, imams, are responsible before Allah. The entire world, I say it again, the entire world is waiting for your next move… because this umma is being torn, it is being destroyed, it is being lost—and it is being lost by our own hands.

Climate Change

• Matt Ridley on How Fossil Fuels are Greening the Planet

  Matt Ridley, author of The Red Queen, Genome, The Rational Optimist and other books, dropped by Reason's studio in Los Angeles to talk about a curious global trend that is just starting to receive attention. Over the past three decades, our planet has gotten greener!

• "There is no ambiguity" on climate change, U.N. concludes

  Climate change is happening, it's almost entirely man's fault and limiting its impacts may require reducing greenhouse gas emissions to zero this century, the U.N.'s panel on climate science said Sunday.

The Assault on "Broken Windows" Policing

WSJ -- William Bratton and George Kelling -- The Assault on ‘Broken Windows’ Policing

Critics say that maintaining order in public spaces is discriminatory and has no effect on serious crime. The evidence says otherwise.

Critics have a variety of arguments against the policy …. None of these criticisms stands up.

• Discrimination? … The majority of New Yorkers, including minorities, approve of police addressing disorderly illegal behavior, such as public drinking and drug use, fights, public urination and other acts considered to be minor offenses. We have attended countless meetings with citizen groups in high-crime areas, and almost without exception disorderly behavior and conditions are central concerns.
• No effect on serious crime? … In 1993 New York’s murder rate was 26.5 per 100,000 people. Since 1994, when Broken Windows policing was put into practice citywide, crime has fallen further, faster and for longer than anywhere else in the country. Today the largest and densest city in the U.S. has a lower murder rate, at four per 100,000, than the nation’s 4.5 per 100,000. In 1993 New York accounted for about 7.9% of U.S. homicides; last year the city’s share was 2.4%.
• Overincarceration? … Another charge against Broken Windows is that it results in too many poor and minority youths being jailed or imprisoned. In reality, felony arrests in New York are down by about 60,000 a year from 1990 levels.
• Middle-class morality? … a survey of 13,000 residents of 40 neighborhoods in six large cities …. found a broad consensus—regardless of race, ethnicity or class—about what constituted disorderly conditions and behavior. Topping the list were drunken and loitering youth, street harassment and panhandling, street prostitution, abandoned houses, graffiti, and other behaviors and conditions such as drug dealing, excessive noise and reckless driving. People know what disorderly behavior and conditions are, and they want something done about them.

Prior to the development of “broken windows” policing, a “SoHo” (an area of London) theory of policing was common in practice. That is the idea that there would always be a criminal element and in larger cities it would be easier just to localize this and contain it by lowering standards in a zone or area of the city but enforce all of the environmental codes and laws in the rest of the city. The area of the city where the standards were lowered, however, was also usually racially identifiable. Perhaps the worst thing that can be done to a community is to lower the standards. Children pay more attention to what you do than what you say and you are lowering the expectations for them as well.

Two Views on Congress and the Obama Presidency Going Forward.

• WSJ -- Kin Strassel -- A GOP Strategy Begins to Emerge.

  Congressional leaders will use coalitions to achieve small wins. Conservatives may not be satisfied.

• NY TImes -- Obama Unbound

  Obama is not cowering or conceding. He’s been liberated by defeat, becoming the president that many of his supporters hoped he would be.

The Modern Regulatory State and Administrative Law

Cass Sunstein, Walmsley University Professor at Harvard Law School

Harvard Magazine in its current Jan/2015 issue has an article on Cass Sunstein, Walmsley University Professor at Harvard Law School, which gives some insight into the intellectual background and political perspectives of the current trends in regulation and administrative law. Cass Sunstein and Barack Obama were both professors of law at the University of Chicago. Sunstein led the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs from 2009 to 2012, which he described as “the cockpit of the regulatory state.” The full article can be found at The Legal Olympian.

To address the crisis of the Great Depression, the New Deal transformed the system of checks and balances by increasing the power of the president, reducing the clout of the federal judiciary, and increasing the size of the national bureaucracy so that its power rivaled that of Congress. The New Deal transformed the system of federalism by transferring power from the states to the federal government. It redefined individual rights, from “rights to be free from government intrusion” to “government protection against the multiple hazards of industrialized society.” The result was “a dramatic change in the fabric of the national government….”

To Sunstein, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s 1944 State of the Union Address “has a strong claim to being the greatest speech of the twentieth century.” FDR used it to propose a Second Bill of Rights, to redress what he described as the Constitution’s inadequacies. He recommended rights to “a useful and remunerative job”; for “every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies”; to “a decent home”; to “adequate medical care”; to “adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment”; and to “a good education.” They “spell security,” the president said: “For unless there is security here at home, there cannot be lasting peace in the world.”

One of the criticisms comes from a report for the Administrative Conference of the United States, an independent federal agency with the mission of improving regulation. The report documented that reviews by Sunstein’s office of proposed federal rules “took longer in 2011 and 2012 because of concerns about the agencies issuing costly or controversial rules prior to the November 2012 election.”

The Global “Battle of Ideas”

Donald Rumsfeld, when he was Secretary of Defense, was asked how the United States was faring against the extremist ideology in the global “battle of ideas.” He said, “If I were grading, I would say that we probably deserve a D+ as a country.” That poor grade was primarily the result of his own policies and a cultural climate that led to the incidents at Abu Ghraib.

--- See also previous blog “Equality as an Affirmation of Our Common Humanity”

WSJ -- Peggy Noonan -- A Flawed Report’s Important Lesson

Americans regardless of party should agree torture is wrong.

“Torture is not like us. It’s not part of the American DNA. We think of ourselves as better than that because we’ve been better than that….We can’t use torture methods and still at the same time be the hope of the world.”
      -- Peggy Noonan

“The use of torture compromises that which most distinguishes us from our enemies, our belief that all people, even captured enemies, possess basic human rights.”
     -- Sen. John McCain

Most American's Best Days are Behind Them

WP -- Most American’s best days are behind them -- (See map)

“Median household income peaked at least 15 years ago in 81 percent of U.S. counties. That means that when incomes are adjusted for inflation, most middle class households are actually earning less money than they did years ago.”

2016 Presidential Election

The Republicans will have to win Ohio and Florida to have any chance of winning.
The Democrats best chance of winning would be to secure and win Virginia.

Best demographic Republican ticket Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio / John Kasich.
Best demographic Democratic ticket Hillary Clinton / Tim Kaine or Mark Warner.

Angr/Wikimedia Commons

Map of red states and blue states in the U.S. based on presidential elections since 2000. Red: The Republican candidate carried the state in all four most recent presidential elections (2000, 2004, 2008, 2012). Pink: The Republican candidate carried the state in three of the four most recent elections. Purple=The Republican candidate and the Democratic candidate each carried the state in two of the four most recent elections. Light blue: The Democratic candidate carried the state in three of the four most recent elections. Dark blue=The Democratic candidate carried the state in all four most recent elections.

If the Republicans are able to hold all of the states that Mitt Romney won in 2010 they would need another 64 votes in the electoral college to win the next presidential election. It would be very difficult for them to do this without winning and adding Florida (29) and Ohio (18) which have a combined 47 electoral votes. This would still only amount to 253 and another 17 would be needed to reach the 270 electoral votes for election. This would require winning 17 votes from three swing states which are Virginia (13), Colorado (9), and Nevada (6) or possibly winning votes from states that have voted just somewhat more Democratic than Republican since 2000, which are New Mexico (5), Iowa(6), and New Hampshire (3). Do the math.

Even if the Republicans were to win Florida and Ohio, the Democrats would still have a very slight demographic advantage if they could win Virginia. Since the election is likely to depend upon these swing states the demographics would give either a center-right or center-left candidate a better chance of winning. Ohio has voted for the victor in every presidential election since 1960.