Syria

All three of the major broadcast networks' evening newscasts tonight covered the largely-Republican pushback against President Obama's plan to move 10,000 Syrian refugees on to American soil. But only NBC's Hallie Jackson noted that the move by state governors was bipartisan, with first-in-the-nation primary host New Hampshire's Gov. Maggie Hassan (D) objecting to the Obama administration placing…

2015 is drawing to a close, so unless some dark horse comes out of absolutely nowhere, Chris Matthews is a mortal lock for the DisHonor award for the year's worst analogy. On this evening's Hardball, Matthews argued that we shouldn't blame Islam for ISIS terrorist attacks since, after all, FDR, despite despising Mussolini, "never declared war on the Catholics." Just a little difference: Italian…

Would John Heilemann have called Francois Hollande "shameless" and "un-French" if a few months back he had halted the immigration of Syrian immigrants into France, thus stopping two of the Paris terrorists—who reportedly posed as refugees—from entering the country? The question arises because on today's With All Due Respect, Heilemann condemned as "shameless" and "un-American" the dozen or so…

Many on the left have accused conservatives of exploiting the Paris terrorist attacks for political gain. On Monday, Daily Kos founder and publisher Markos Moulitsas jumped on the pile, alleging that the right’s main reaction to the attacks was not sadness or outrage, but “excitement” over the prospect of stirring up Islamophobia -- perhaps to the point of getting the Middle East war that they…

On Monday, CNN's Christiane Amanpour and two of her network's analysts blasted President Obama moments after he ended a press conference where he defended his anti-ISIS strategy. Amanpour underlined that Obama "something that was pretty incredible...that our strategy is working. People do not believe that to be the case. The only strategy that's working is the strategy that he tends to dismiss —…

Monday’s The View featured a segment with Richard Clarke, an ABC News consultant and former Clinton and Bush national security staffer. Clarke iterated that “We are a country of refugees. The people we're allowing in are the victims of terrorism. We shouldn't punish victims of terrorism.” When Paula Faris brought up that Marco Rubio said “you can't do a background check on a lot of these refugees…

The obvious pull quote of the day from President Obama's contentious press conference in Antalya, Turkey is this statement: "What I’m not interested in doing is posing or pursuing some notion of American leadership or America winning or whatever other slogans they come up with ..." Obama then claimed that any ideas coming from those who believe in such a notion have "no relationship to what is…

Monday’s Morning Joe began with an evaluation of the actions of the White House prior to and after the attack on Paris Friday night. Joe Scarborough began by demanding to know if the roundtable thought the President actually looked involved and engaged in understanding “the level of threat.” When Mike Barnicle tried to claim the President “looks fully engaged,” Scarborough felt it necessary to…

Appearing as a guest during Sunday's live CNN coverage of the Paris terrorist attacks, CNN National Security Analyst Juliette Kayyem worried that, if the United States refuses to allow Syrian refugees into the country, that it would bolster "very right-wing elements" in Europe, leading the Europeans to "close their borders" to more refugees. At about 6:48 p.m., after arguing that it would be…

Appearing as a guest during Sunday's MSNBC live coverage of the Paris terrorist attacks, Daily Beast Foreign Editor Christopher Dickey declared that "I'm afraid" that the right wing in Europe "will continue to be on the rise" in the aftermath of the attacks.

On Sunday's Fareed Zakaria GPS on CNN, host Zakaria suggested that it would be a "mistake" for the West to make a "swift and violent response" to the Paris terrorist attacks because doing so "further stokes the fires of jihad." He plugged an upcoming segment: "Coming up, it's an all too familiar pattern. A well-planned attack on the West, followed by a swift and violent response that further…

As of early this morning, Matt Drudge was carrying a link to a story headlining how President Obama is "under fire for saying ISIS 'contained' just hours before Paris attack." Well, Obama is under some fire, but Drudge's link is to coverage at the UK Daily Mail. That's unfortunately unsurprising, because there is little to no mention of Obama's naive, foolish and callous statement in the U.S.…

Last night at dinner a relative from NYC who described himself as a "bleeding heart liberal" opposed cutting off the immigration of Syrian refugees because in his view that would run counter to American traditions. He's a great guy, but that is a dangerous misinterpretation.  We have no obligation to commit collective suicide. What's more troubling is that supposed experts on the subject are…

During Saturday morning's live MSNBC coverage of the Paris terror attacks, Daily Beast Foreign Editor Christopher Dickey worried that "the right wing politicians" in France "are going to do their best to take advantage of it and probably successfully to further divide this country," leading host Tamron Hall to recall concerns that a "tsunami of hatred may await Muslims."