Steve Clemons: The Biden Doctrine

Steve Clemons: The Biden Doctrine

By barefooted on Tue, 08/23/2016 - 2:37pm |

“Terrorism is a real threat,” Biden said, “but it’s not an existential threat to the existence of the democratic country of the United States of America. Terrorism can cause real problems. It can undermine confidence. It can kill relatively large numbers of people. But terrorism is not an existential threat.” If Biden were running for the presidency, this piece of the Biden Doctrine—what he calls “proportionality”—would no doubt be red meat for many who place terrorism at the heart of America’s challenges today.

URL:

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/08/biden-doctrine/496841/

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I confess myself to be a big Steve Clemons fan, notwithstanding his youthful flirtation with Richard Nixon.

His reference to Biden's unwillingness to sign on to the terrorism panic that seems to have engulfed so many otherwise proudly stalwart public intellectuals raises poignant memories of John Kerry's wise (and reviled by the pugs) remarks that our goal vis-a-vis terrorists should be to confine them to the nuisance level (eg, San Bernardino) and to prevent the catastrophic events (9/11).

The headlong rush to elevate Daesh to super villain status after a few well produced snuff flims went public and its counterproductive consequences make this still unfilled prescription an index to our immaturity.

by jollyroger on Tue, 08/23/2016 - 10:06pm

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