President Obama famously called ISIS the “JV team” of Islamic terrorism, a conclusion that likely Democratic Party presidential nominee Hillary Clinton declined to correct.
In an interview with New Yorker editor David Remnick, Obama said, “If a JV team puts on Lakers uniforms that doesn’t make them Kobe Bryant.”
He made the comment at a time when ISIS, which now has tens of thousands of radical adherents, was surging and causing mayhem across the Middle East.
Clinton later said, when asked if his comment was a mistake, “I don’t think it’s useful to go back and re-plow old ground.”
But many Americans, watching the terror group’s violence across the Middle East and its inspiration of homicide worldwide, think there should be a stronger statement.
The result?
“ISIS hunting permits.”
Now available online.
They say, “ISIS hunting permit,” “No bagging limit. No tagging limit” and “Expires when we defeat this evil.”
They are the project of Eric Greitens, a former Navy SEAL running for governor in Missouri who has a platform of getting the right leadership from outside the political establishment into key posts in the state.
“We need to stand up and defeat radical Islamic terrorists,” he told WND.
The $10 “hunting permits” are a fundraising stunt, and Greitens says they have been more than successful.
“The ISIS hunting permits have been flying off the website,” he told WND. “Across Missouri, people are buying then, displaying them, saying, ‘this is my guy.'”
They’ve been dispatched on requests from all 50 states already, he said.
“This has driven the liberal media crazy,” he said. “They hate the idea of having a Navy SEAL who’s willing to stand up and fight for people.”
But he said something has to be done.
“The [St. Louis] Post-Dispatch came out and said Omar Mateen was nothing but a confused man.”
Mateen was the Islamic terrorist who, while pledging allegiance to ISIS and its leaders, shot and killed 49 people at an Orlando, Florida, club and wounded dozens more.
“He was not a confused man. He was evil,” Greitens said. “He was a terrorist.”
He said America needs leaders who will stand up and recognize that.
Former U.S. Rep. Allen West’s blog noted the idea immediately drew opposition from the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
The blog commentary by Matt Palumbo noted CAIR-Missouri official Faizan Syed believes the message may put Missouri Muslims in danger if it ends up in the wrong hands.
A Fox News report had quoted Syed, saying: “The problem is with his target audience. Amongst them are radicals in this country who don’t know the difference between the two [Muslims and radical Muslims].”
He continued: “Those are the people who we have to be worried about when they get a bumper sticker saying ‘here’s your permit to attack ISIS.’ When they see a woman at Walmart with her children and they say, ‘this looks like ISIS, I’m going to attack ISIS,’ that is when the real trouble begins.”
Noted the blog: “Greitens’ response to Syed is better than anything I could say: ‘The reason there’s this confusion is that unfortunately we have a commander-in-chief who is unwilling to say the words ‘radical Islamic terrorism.’ The people ISIS have hurt the most, who’ve been murdered the most, are the Muslim community.”
Continued the West blog: “We’re all capable of telling the difference between normal Muslims and ISIS. Apparently the only people who aren’t are those in CAIR’s leadership, which isn’t surprise considering they’re designated as a terrorist organization by the United Arab Emirates.”
Greitens is in a four-way Republican primary Aug. 2 against suburban St. Louis businessman John Brunner, former U.S. Attorney and House Speaker Catherine Hanaway and Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder.
He told WND his first goal would be to clean up Jefferson City, citing “corrupt insiders and paid lobbyists playing a game.”
“While they get rich, Missourians are hurting,” he told WND.
He also said the state needs someone who will fight the federal government when it encroaches on liberty and freedom, and to turn the economy around by re-enforcing “those core values of personal responsibility.”
He noted his work with thousands of veterans to help them return to ordinary life in America following their deployments.
