"Pomposity Is Not Leadership"

"I know part of this may sound like pooh-poohing, or perhaps downplaying the suffering of the people who are killed in these horrific attacks. Right now I'm listening to the extended press conference held by the San Bernardino County officials describing for the first time, out of the crisis of the moment, just what happened. It is heartbreaking and powerful. It has a particular resonance for me since I grew up in San Bernardino County. All these names of little towns you're hearing about are ones I grew up with, places I know well. We can ennoble and honor and protect ourselves without slipping into conceit and pomposity. Because these have consequences. Let's step back and remember that at the end of the day it was as a result of the 9/11 terrorist attacks that we invaded Iraq. And that decision was a complete fucking disaster, the consequences of which we are still living with, no less than in the existence of ISIS itself. We need to remember that."

Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo responds to Jeb Bush's response to President Obama's speech on San Bernardino.

"One might chalk up anger at 'Asians' to bygone generational ignorance. But the same debate lingers today. Conservatives routinely flay President Obama for targeting his rhetoric against ISIS too narrowly, and refusing to frame the conflict as a 'civilizational' struggle between the West and Islam. There are practical reasons not to allow the U.S. to be identified as hostile to Islam as a whole, but also a more basic moral argument: just as most of Japan's victims were Asians, the most common victims of ISIS are Muslims."

Jonathan Chait at New York explains how Pearl Harbor Day has "some interesting relevance to the current debate over terrorism."