No worries about being politically correct any longer. It's on.
Speaking about the Uganda bombings, the president said, “What you’ve seen in some of the statements that have been made by these terrorist organizations is that they do not regard African life as valuable in and of itself. They see it as a potential place where you can carry out ideological battles that kill innocents without regard to long-term consequences for their short-term tactical gains.”…
Explaining the president’s comment, an administration official said Mr. Obama “references the fact that both U.S. intelligence and past al Qaeda actions make clear that al Qaeda — and the groups like al Shabaab that they inspire — do not value African life. The actions of al Qaeda and the groups that it has inspired show a willingness to sacrifice innocent African life to reach their targets.”…
“Additionally, U.S. intelligence has indicated that al Qaeda leadership specifically targets and recruits black Africans to become suicide bombers because they believe that poor economic and social conditions make them more susceptible to recruitment than Arabs,” the official said. “Al Qaeda recruits have said that al Qaeda is racist against black members from West Africa because they are only used in lower level operations.”
“In short,” the official said, “al Qaeda is a racist organization that treats black Africans like cannon fodder and does not value human life.”
I question the timing, given today's low support numbers from CBS and WaPo on the President. It seems like a ploy to cater to the center-right who were tired of the refusals to label terrorist organizations from the Middle East as "radical muslim" factions. Easiest way to demonize them (as it has been for any opposition)? Play the race card. It stirs emotion and support pretty quickly.
At the same time, it seems uneccessary, given that Al Qaeda has been seen as a terrorist group (bad guys) by the American public as a whole.....so why go there?
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