Nice. Orlando. Paris. San Bernardino and over 70 more ISIS directed or inspired attacks.
For decades, J. Edgar Hoover, head of the FBI, refused to acknowledge the existence of the Mafia. Not acknowledging the Mafia meant he didn’t have to confront them. Not addressing the Mafia allowed them to flourish and wreck havoc in America. President Obama is doing the same with a much more dangerous foe: the radical Islamic movement.
The world knows that the White House refuses to use the term “radical Islam,” or anything approaching it. Of course, the administration denies any over-arching movement exists. Many informed voters disagree. The former U.S. “Spy General” said it best: “You cannot defeat an enemy you do not admit exists.”
The same could have been said about Hoover and the Mafia.
History knows that J. Edgar Hoover had almost autonomous, unchecked power as head of the FBI. When Hoover took the reigns of the Bureau of Investigation in 1924, and later the FBI in the 1930s, the Mafia was growing. Under prohibition, the Mafia ruled bootlegging and made the modern-day equivalent of billions. After the repeal of prohibition, the Mafia adapted and made billions more in other rackets.
According to Mafia expert Selwyn Raab, Hoover “dismissed as fantasy suggestions that an American Mafia national crime organization existed,” despite the scores of murders.
Hoover countered claims of a national “syndicate” by saying they were “mere hoodlums” and left the prosecution of them to local police. Raab believes one of the most important reasons Hoover responded the way he did was based on “his distaste for long, frustrating investigations that more often than not would end with limited success.”
Hoover refused to assign any significant resources for fighting the mob for decades. He even went so far as to ban the use of the word Mafia. Sadly for us, the Mafia was no match for the outgunned local police. Because Hoover turned a blind eye to the Mafia, they were almost free to grow their massive criminal empire.
A similar story has taken place with Obama and the terrorism of radical Islam.
We know that White House all but refuses to accept that there is a worldwide terror syndicate, a war being fought against us. Keep in mind that, long before President Obama, President Clinton treated terrorists as “criminals” and subjected them to courts of law. Obama’s policy is to continue with the local law enforcement mentality. He has subjected the American court system to trying terrorists as mere hoodlums committing “workplace violence.”
Of course, it is also well known that, like Hoover, Obama has no stomach for drawn-out conflicts. Long drawn-out confrontations – political or military – are not in his playbook. He wants decisive action he can control, hence his presidency by executive order and war by drones.
In order to maintain all of the foregoing, the White House bans the use of certain terms, such as ‘radical Islam’ and the ‘War on Terror.’ To use those terms would be to admit the existence of a real foe. Obama cannot do that, given his aversion to truly confronting it and facing the long, drawn-out effort it will take to deal with it.
Another troubling parallel can be drawn between Hoover and Obama. Hoover eventually came around to fighting the Mafia under the Kennedy Administration. Hoover resorted to using illegal wiretaps to gather intel on the mob. That, of course, was long before our current NSA activities favored by Obama.
In the end, Hoover had to be dragged into fighting the Mafia. By then, it was an enormous enterprise that had killed countless and robbed even more. It took the RICO Act and television news to expose the mafia in full.
Today, television news provides images of the real horror of those pushing radical Islam, such as ISIS, a movement that kills tens of thousands of people and threatens entire countries. The mafia truly would be small potatoes by comparison.
We know at this point that Obama will not be dragged into reality. The question is whether we will have a new President that will be.