extremism

Orlando: fifty dead, including the killer who came from a US family of Afghan background, had been married, was separated from his wife who accused him of beating her, had extreme opinions he may have learned in his home and religious milieu, and worked for a security firm. He had been suspected twice of having ties with Islamic extremists but nothing came out of it. He was able to buy more guns very recently. Needless to say, politicians were quick to draw their own conclusions from the disaster. Trump took advantage of it and tr(i)ump(hantly) claimed he had been right all along. About what? His shouts and egotistic appeal to visceral feelings, I suppose. Clinton was prudent, too prudent probably. She and her team are wondering how tough she should look? In his NYT op-ed, Roger Cohen managed to attack Obama again for his alleged pusillanimity in Syria in the past five years. As if it is possible to destroy Islamic extremist movements after our long recent history of military aggressivity in the Persian Gulf, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, East Africa, Afghanistan and Iran, Iraq, and Syria. The list is very long of places where we have supported leaders on the dark side and our perceived interests have relentlessly been pursued without regard for the cultures and religious feelings of societies with enormous demographic and economic problems.