As War Escalates, Obama Makes ISIS ‘Enemy Number One’

Pentagon Rails at 'Apocalyptic' Threat of ISIS

Obama Administration officials are stepping up the official narrative of an ever-longer and ever more intense war on ISIS, preparing to span borders and preparing the American public for the inevitable insinuation of ground troops.

In that, the administration is desperate to portray ISIS as not only “enemy number one” for the United States, but also an enemy beyond all others in human history, an “apocalyptic” threat that has to be wiped out through sheer force of arms.

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel sought to portray ISIS as not only a threat to US interests, but an imminent threat to literally every US interest on the entire planet.

Sen. James Inhofe (R – OK), ever eager to take any the most hysterical position out there and trump it, declared ISIS was “rapidly developing a method of blowing up a major US city.”

The goal of portraying ISIS as an unprecedented face of evil in the history of mankind is go explicit at this point that CNN is actually running an op-ed asking whether calling them “evil” is really the scariest word we can come up with, or if there is some other word that will more quickly prepare the public for the protracted war that is now looming over us.

Where this protracted war in Iraq and Syria ultimately takes us in the long-term remains to be seen. In the near-term, we can expect ever more alarming rhetoric, coupled with predictions of ISIS committing some atrocity that would seemingly require wizards to actually pull off as stated.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.