The Jordanian Rallying Cry Against ISIS: ‘Annihilate This Organization’

Today on NRO

CHARLES C.W. COOKE: A report from les banlieues. 'Je suis . . . qui?'

KEVIN D. WILLIAMSON: The idea that elites know best, versus individuals' control of their own bodies. A Vaccine against Chaos.

JONAH GOLDBERG: Unlike the rest of the current field, Scott Walker can boast support from both wings of the GOP. The Vanilla Candidate.

ANDREW SMITH: Marco Rubio's book is a big hint about his unique role. Rubio, Candidate of Ideas?

SLIDESHOW: Hamas Training Camp.

Morning Jolt
. . . with Jim Geraghty

February 04, 2015

The Jordanian Rallying Cry Against ISIS: 'Annihilate This Organization'

You have to admire any country -- but particularly a U.S. ally -- that sends such a clear message of "don't mess with us."

Jordan swiftly responded to the brutal killing of one of its fighter pilots by ISIS, announcing the executions of two jihadist prisoners early Wednesday.

One of the convicts hanged, according to the Jordanian government, was Sajida al-Rishawi, a would-be suicide bomber whose release ISIS had previously demanded as part of a prisoner exchange.

The other was Ziad Karbouli, a former top aide to the deceased leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Their deaths followed the horrific footage released Tuesday by ISIS that showed the Jordanian pilot, Moath al-Kasasbeh, being burned alive while confined in a cage.

CNN is not showing images of al-Kasasbeh's killing, which drew global condemnation and prompted protests and vows of retaliation in Jordan.

"Those criminals cannot be compared to Moath," said al-Kasasbeh's father, Safi, referring to the prisoners' execution. "Moath's blood is much more valued than these two prisoners."

He called on the Jordanian government to execute all prisoners with links to ISIS. "Annihilate this organization," he said.

His sentiments found voice on the streets of Amman, the capital, and in the pilot's hometown.

One demonstrator held a poster that read: "They burned our hearts, so let's burn their dens, and their prisoners in our prisons."

Welcome to the Middle East version of The Untouchables. "They burn one of your guys, you hang two of theirs. That's the Amman way."

Or maybe I'm quoting the wrong movie.

Members of the House Armed Services Committee met with Jordan's King Abdullah Tuesday not long after news broke that ISIS had burned to death a Jordanian pilot captured in the fight against the terrorist group. In a private session with lawmakers, the king showed an extraordinary measure of anger — anger which he expressed by citing American movie icon Clint Eastwood.

"He said there is going to be retribution like ISIS hasn't seen," said Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter Jr., a Marine Corps veteran of two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, who was in the meeting with the king. "He mentioned 'Unforgiven' and he mentioned Clint Eastwood, and he actually quoted a part of the movie."

Hunter would not say which part of "Unforgiven" the king quoted, but noted it was where Eastwood's character describes how he is going to deliver his retribution. There is a scene in the picture in which Eastwood's character, William Munny, says, "Any man I see out there, I'm gonna kill him. Any son of a bitch takes a shot at me, I'm not only going to kill him, I'm going to kill his wife and all his friends and burn his damn house down."

For what it's worth, Charles Krauthammer fears Jordan is about to take the bait:

Krauthammer disagreed, saying he believes the Islamic State is trying to"destabilize its neighbors" by deliberately drawing the fragile Arab nation into a costly land war in Syria.

"Jordan being drawn into a direct war with ISIS is not a good thing for us," he said. "Jordan will not defeat ISIS on its own. It wouldn't even defeat ISIS if it had some coalition partners. It's the United States — or Turkey, perhaps — the only partners [that could defeat ISIS.]"

"This is a way to stir the cauldron in a country that is stable, was stable, but is easily destabilized," Krauthammer warned. "And that's what ISIS is after."

The National Media's Interest in Vaccine Skepticism Is About to Disappear

Well, this is darned inconvenient for the narrative du jour:

President Obama has proposed a $50-million cut to a federal immunization program, citing diminished need for government-funded vaccinations thanks to Affordable Care Act.

The funding reduction, included in Obama's 2016 budget blueprint released Monday, comes amid a measles outbreak nationwide and growing debate over vaccinations.

The government budgeted $611 million in 2015 for the federal purchase and distribution of vaccines for uninsured children and adults, which is authorized by Section 317 of the Public Health Service Act.

The proposed cut for 2016 is relatively modest, but would reduce the number of immunizations provided free of charge at local, state and national levels.

And if we're throwing blame around for the cultural phenomenon of vaccine skepticism, Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast reminds us that not long ago, some of the biggest names in our popular culture were giving, at the very least, an extremely sympathetic hearing and platform, if not formally endorsing it:

In fairness, Oprah is no anti-vaxxer. She has, however, given one of the movement's biggest celebrity mouthpieces a national platform. After actress and Playboy Playmate Jenny McCarthy launched her crusade—which included a "Green Our Vaccines" march and rally in Washington, D.C. in the summer of 2008—Oprah invited her onto her show.

"You're mother warriors is what you are," Oprah said in 2007, praising McCarthy and other moms dedicated to fighting autism. McCarthy's son was diagnosed with the disorder, and she became convinced that vaccines had something to do with it.

"What number will it take for people just to start listening to what the mothers of children who have seen autism have been saying for years, which is, 'We vaccinated our baby and something happened,'" McCarthy said during a fawning, sympathetic portrait on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

"Right before [my son's] MMR shot, I said to the doctor, 'I have a very bad feeling about this shot. This is the autism shot, isn't it?' And he said, 'No, that is ridiculous. It is a mother's desperate attempt to blame something,' and he swore at me, and then the nurse gave [Evan] the shot. And I remember going, 'Oh, God, I hope he's right.' And soon thereafter—boom—the soul's gone from his eyes."

McCarthy was allowed to spout this, pushback-free, to Oprah's massive and adoring audience. (Oprah's immense popularity and influence was the foundation for a cultural force that was dubbed, "the Oprah Effect.")

Again, if anyone wants to argue "the Lancet article hadn't been retracted back in 2008," they're kidding themselves, because the rest of the medical community was pretty unified in its dismissal of the vaccination-autism connection.

No, You Don't Get to Lecture Us About Following Health Rules, Ma'am

Two perfect Tweets from Dr. Nancy Snyderman, medical correspondent for NBC News:

If her name sounds familiar . . .

Four days after she was spotted outside a New Jersey restaurant, NBC News Chief Medical Editor Dr. Nancy Snyderman issued an apology Monday for violating her Ebola quarantine.

But not everyone's satisfied with her mea culpa.

"While under voluntary quarantine guidelines, which called for our team to avoid public contact for 21 days, members of our group violated those guidelines and understand that our quarantine is now mandatory until 21 days have passed," Snyderman, 62, said in a statement after being spotted in her car outside Peasant Grill in Hopewell, N.J. A man with her picked up a takeout order.

"We remain healthy and our temperatures are normal. As a health professional I know that we have no symptoms and pose no risk to the public, but I am deeply sorry for the concerns this episode caused."

Later she lamented the "cheap shots" on Twitter, but I don't think it's cheap to argue that she is the absolute last person in America who has the moral authority to argue that the rest of us over-value "free will" and under-value "public health."

Go Figure: Veterans Want Choices in Health Care

Hey, remember the VA scandal? Remember veterans?

Does President Obama's budget proposal get any scrutiny anymore?

A nationwide poll of 1,000 veterans commissioned by Concerned Veterans for America (CVA), and conducted by The Tarrance Group, confirmed that military veterans overwhelmingly favor reform and increased choice in the delivery of veterans' health care -- in spite of recent assertions from the VA that they do not.

The polling revealed that ninety percent (90%) of veterans favor efforts to reform veteran health care in the U.S., and eighty-eight percent (88%) of veterans say that it is either "extremely" or "very important" to increase health care choices for veterans. Most telling, ninety-five percent (95%) of veterans feel it is either "extremely" or "very important" to ensure veterans get the best possible care, even if that means getting that care outside of a VA facility. The data is clear and indisputable: no matter what the VA says, veterans want choice.

The findings also come a day after President Obama's FY2016 Budget Request sought to strip funding from the Veteran Choice Card Program he signed in to law just 6 months ago and after VA officials claimed that the use of the choice card is not the "preferred choice" of veterans.

ADDENDA: Over on the NRO home page, I examine John Judis's loss of faith in his theory about the "Emerging Democratic Majority" and how modern Democrats have nothing to offer middle-class voters -- those with "too much money for sympathy but not enough money for influence."

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The Jordanian Rallying Cry Against ISIS: ‘Annihilate This Organization’

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