By KYLE PRATT
Staff Writer
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The Deputy National Security Advisor to Barack Obama said recently that the President has not watched the videos depicting the beheading of American Journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and doesn’t plan to. It is said that the White House doesn’t want to “put a spotlight” on the gruesome acts and that it wants to focus its efforts on capturing or defeating the ones who perpetrated the inhuman acts.
The question is whether or not, as president, Obama should watch these videos. Sure, he has the right to not watch the beheadings, but is it his responsibility to watch them, to understand what this nation is up against? The simple answer to these questions is “No it` is not.”
The president is the Commander in Chief of the American military, and being in such a position means it is essential to understand the enemy that is plaguing the world. In this case, the enemy is the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, and the plague is the genocide of thousands of people across the Middle East. However, this does not require the president to compromise his emotional stability. Watching the videos of the beheadings would do just that. Videos like this are hard for most people to watch, and the Obama is no exception.
The point of terrorism is to terrorize, and that is exactly what these videos do. They are meant to bring pain and fear to people, especially those who watch them. Every person who doesn’t watch it is one less person affected. Sure, the fact that the beheadings happened affects everyone and is upsetting to everyone, but watching the videos of the acts does nothing but exacerbate its affect.
Is the president wrong for not wanting to experience this? Is he wrong for not wanting to be one more person who is terrorized? No. He simply cannot be blamed for not wanting to see two people being beheaded. Even if the actual action is not shown in the videos, the severed heads are, and that is a sight that no one should have to see, not even the President of the United States
Some may argue that as President, Barack Obama, who was specifically mentioned in the videos, needs to watch it so he can know what ISIS is doing and figure out how to stop it. However he doesn’t need to watch the videos to do all of this. He doesn’t need to see the videos to know what happened in them and to figure out what to do about it. Especially since people all around him have probably seen them multiple times.
Obama has stated that he thinks watching the videos would be him giving in to ISIS. He says it would be giving them exactly what they want, and what they want is to scare him. The goal of these beheadings is to frighten and intimidate not only the president, but the entire United States and western world. By not watching them, Obama is figuratively giving them a slap in the face, a slap that will eventually be followed up by missile coming from an Air Force drone flying overhead. They say not to bring a knife to a gunfight, but the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria is bringing a knife to a missile fight.
It is safe to say that Obama means business, but it is also safe to say that defeating ISIS will not be an easy task. Therefore we must be working together as a nation to avenge the brutal killings of these innocent people. The effort is nothing but diminished by pointless criticisms over little things that don’t really play a big role. The best way to accomplish anything, especially the defeat of ISIS, is for our lawmakers and government officials to work together. The refusal to cooperate and the hyper-criticism that has been plaguing Capitol Hill is the root of almost all of the problems our country faces. This disease comes to the forefront when the President is criticized for something like not watching videos that have been talked about non-stop in the media and in the government for weeks.
Imagine a nation, and world, in which instead of government officials attacking members of the opposite party, they praised each other and did everything they could to work together for the betterment of the people of the United States instead of the betterment of themselves, their friends, and their donators. Only then will we begin to see change.
