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Another terrorism tragedy met with tone-deaf reaction

And so it has happened again. Another horrific terrorist attack, this time in Brussels, Belgium, resulted in more death, destruction, worldwide trauma and chaos. It’s fair to wonder where this terrorism situation is headed. It’s fair to wonder what the solution is to this terrorism.

In the aftermath of the tragedy, the mistakes in how it is handled are clear. Belgium’s prime minister refused to accept the resignation of his justice and interior ministers despite increasing evidence of intelligence and law enforcement failures to prevent the suicide bombings. So an attitude change is needed among world leaders, a change that takes the global threat of radical Islamic terrorists more seriously. That starts with the leader of the free world, President Obama.

This is a president who has gone out to play a round of golf minutes after a press conference involving the beheading of Americans by terrorists.

He seemed more concerned this week with making an historic splash in Cuba, almost perturbed that the destruction in Belgium rained on his parade. Undeterred, he managed to prop up a Cuban leader and regime that has not earned respect by curtailing its human rights violations and dictatorship ways.

Doing the wave at a baseball game and the tango at night on the day the world is dealing with dozens of terrorist-inflicted deaths, including two Americans, is bad form. Does President Obama, in his eighth year, still not get this?

Perhaps he believes completely downplaying the terror – he limited his comments to 55 seconds at a baseball game – will make it go away.

If so, he needs a drastic attitude change. His job is commander-in-chief of the United States. His first responsibility is to protect all of its citizens. If he did not want that job, he should not have run for a second term. In his role, he is supposed to drop the political correctness and call out who the perpetrators are – radical Islamic terrorists. That’s the first step needed to defeating the threat. The president needs to stop pushing the theory that there are seven or eight greater priorities than defeating this terrorist threat when millions of Americans are waking up daily wondering how prepared we are to stop the madness.

If the president really thinks the understated, cool posture in the face of these threats is the correct approach, we’ll tell him what his staff apparently is not capable of telling him – he’s shamefully out of touch.

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