COLD OPEN

COLD OPEN

Let's start with the ISIS beheading of James Foley. If this sort of horror no longer shocks you, it should. It would be one thing for a terrorist group to execute a civilian from the enemy's side. It wouldn't be civilized, but you could understand where that sort of impulse came from. But to force the man to make a statement, and to then cut off his head, and to videotape the event and broadcast it to the world _ this isn't the behavior of a normal adversary. It's not like facing the German army in 1918. The Soviet army of 1980 would not have behaved in such a manner. The closest analogue might be the Japanese army of 1943, from which we have reports of camp officers arranging for the communally observed vivisection of POWs, just to satisfy anatomic curiosities. But even that isn't quite on point, because the Imperial Japanese Army did not think to publicize such atrocities. At the very least, they had the sense to keep such things to themselves. All of which suggests that when you look at jihadists in general, and ISIS in particular, we really do face a new kind of adversary. These aren't communists or fascists. They're psychopaths. Literally. It is as though we face thousands upon thousands of Jeffrey Dahmers and John Wayne Gacys, but all devoted to the same rough set of beliefs and rituals. It is understandable that Americans would try to turn away from this fact. It is, quite frankly, horrifying. But it exists all the same. Daniel Pearl. Nicholas Berg. Paul Johnson.Jack Hensley and Eugene Armstrong. The Syrian soldier whose head was brandished by the Australian child jihadist. The British soldier who had his head cut off in the street in Woolwich.  This is a thing that happens. The men who do this are real. Which brings us to President Obama. Last Wednesday the president made a statement about James Foley, the American citizen who had just been ritually slaughtered. Obama said that he would be "relentless" in pursuing the men responsible. Which is good and fitting. Then he went to play golf. In a rare fit of conscience, the media exploded, castigating Obama for being either (at best) crass or (at worst) disengaged. Even the New York Times was ashamed of his behavior. I would offer a slightly nuanced view of the president's golf game. It isn't the idea of Obama recreating that's worrisome. Imagine if, instead of playing golf, the president had made his statement and then taken a long, solitary run. Or gone to the batting cage and swung the lumber for an hour. Or done something physical to work out his frustration and find some mental space. Heck, imagine if he had picked up his bag and trudged the links by himself, using the physical activity to somberly work things through. Would people have given him grief? I doubt it. Most people understand how the physical and mental are linked, and very few folks would begrudge him some physical activity in the shadow of such terrible news. No, the problem isn't that the president surveyed the beheading of one of his citizens and then played golf. It's that he looked like this on the course. And this. And this.  The problem isn't that the president played golf. It's that he was yukking it up on the course, fist-bumping his buddies, having a bro-tastic afternoon. Immediately after confronting the kind of evil which murdered James Foley. Which suggests in turn that President Obama lacks either the ability or the willingness to truly grapple with the nature of the threat we face.