Michael Goodwin

Michael Goodwin

US News

Obama dances as the world reels from (more) terror attacks

As soon as the terror in Brussels ended, the post-terror rituals began. Photos and videos of the carnage emerged, victims were given names and faces and allies expressed their sorrow and pledged assistance. Citizens of Brussels, following the lead of New Yorkers after 9/11 and Parisians after two attacks last year, created shrines and odes to the dead.

In America, security ramped up as millions feared their cities would be next, and officials vowed to harden our defenses in the fight against ­Islamic State.

Unfortunately, the rituals also include President Obama doing something stupid.

After each atrocity, Obama acts weirdly detached, a pattern that continued after Brussels. His happy-go-lucky tourist antics in Cuba, followed by tango dancing in Argentina, provided a shocking contrast to fear at home and manhunts in Europe.

Even Hillary Clinton, despite needing Obama to protect her against possible indictment, effectively rebuked his too-cool-for-school demeanor. She said it was “understandable that Americans are worried” and that “the threat we face from terrorism is real, it is urgent and it knows no boundaries.”

The juxtaposition is remarkable. The people who want to be president understand the need to reassure a rattled public, yet the actual president is determined not to let terrorists ruin his day.

Predictably, Obama refuses to use the words “Islamic terrorism” or “radical Islam,” as if doing so would stain all Muslims.

There is no news in the ritual, only a fresh dispiriting realization that Obama rejects the traditional understanding of what it means to be commander in chief and leader of the free world.

Recall that the day after the Benghazi terror attack that killed four Americans, including our Libyan ambassador, the president helped spread the lie about the cause and jetted off to a fund-raiser. He went golfing after reading perfunctory remarks on the beheading of journalist James Foley and coldly labeled the massacre of 130 people in Paris a “setback.”

Last December, before the casualty count was known in San Bernardino and before the husband-and-wife terrorists were dead, Obama declared the attack a “mass shooting” and jumped on his hobby horse to call for more gun control.

As the terror attacks become more numerous, Obama’s stubborn detachment becomes harder to comprehend. He isn’t budging despite former military leaders and some of his former top aides saying openly that Islamic State is “winning” and warning about the group’s desire to get nuclear weapons.

Obama’s approach is especially odd given that, as a senator and candidate for president, he criticized President George W. Bush for insisting Americans not let 9/11 change our way of life. Like many others, Obama falsely accused Bush of saying people should just “go out and shop.”

Yet now, in the face of more frequent attacks and the existence of a terrorist army with a caliphate in Syria and Iraq, Obama aims to turn down the concern meter to almost zero. Indeed, he comes chillingly close to treating the dead as bothersome distractions.

“Groups like ISIL can’t destroy us, they can’t defeat us. They don’t produce anything. They’re not an existential threat to us,” he said in Argentina.

He frequently uses the phrase “existential threat” to defend his posture. For at least two years, he has cited that standard to try to diminish the significance of successful attacks even as those successes recruit more terrorists and lead to more attacks.

Or, as he put it in Argentina, “Their primary power, in addition to killing innocent lives, is to strike fear in our societies, to disrupt our societies, so that the effect cascades from an ­explosion or an attack by a semi- ­automatic rifle.”

People gather in Brussels to observe a minute of silence in memory of the victims of the airport and metro bombings.Getty Images

Obama’s passivity is doubly indefensible when seen in the larger context of his presidency. His acceptance of the use of chemical weapons against children in Syria, his casual tolerance of Iran’s wicked ambitions toward Israel and his abandonment of Eastern Europe to Vladimir Putin’s brutality all demonstrate a readiness to appease evil.

With America in the cross hairs of every two-bit jihadist, the president’s “existential threat” standard is a semantic sleight of hand that obscures his dereliction. Savage murder is not an annoyance to the loved ones of the dead, nor is the infringement of daily freedoms for millions a distraction from a more important agenda.

Starting with George Washington, it has been the first duty of the president to protect Americans. Whatever the ultimate cost of Obama’s fecklessness, it is already a unique calamity that he refuses to accept his ­responsibility.

Same old Albany

Albany is being Albany again. Despite the conviction on federal corruption charges of two of the three men in a room, the notorious practice of leaders making all the state’s major decisions in secrecy continues.

Democratic former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Republican ex-Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos are headed to the pokey, but Gov. Cuomo, who emerged unindicted from a separate probe, is carving up the budget and other items with their replacements. Like made men finally getting a seat at the table, Democrat Carl Heastie and Republican John Flanagan slipped comfortably into the habits of their felonious predecessors.

It is a measure of public numbness that there is little objection. Perhaps silence is wise and efficient, as Mark Twain advised in a similar situation.

“Never try to teach a pig to sing,” he said. “It wastes your time and annoys the pig.”

Saint’s alive – in latest tome

On Easter, I’m happy to recommend a timely book. “Augustine: Conversions to Confessions” is a masterful biography of the iconic Christian theologian.

British historian Robin Lane Fox follows St. Augustine’s journey to faith in gripping detail and brings alive the world of antiquity from 1,600 years ago. He also conveys a timeless quality to his subject’s struggle with temptation, as captured by young Augustine’s prayer to God, “Give me chastity, but not yet.”

At 600 pages, the book is a commitment — but worth the effort.

A ‘fine’ mess in Big Apple

The report from Comptroller Scott Stringer that City Hall raked in $957 million in fines last year is full of eye-popping data. The total haul was up 7.5 percent from 2014 and 12 percent over 2012.

Thanks to added cameras and enforcement, more than a million speeding tickets were handed out near schools. As usual, parking tickets were the mother lode, pulling in
$565 million.

Perhaps that’s because parking tickets are profitable to the city, while most fines don’t cover the cost of enforcement, officials say.

In other words, many exorbitant fines New Yorkers pay are not large enough even to fund the bureaucrats who collect them. That’s because the average cost of a city employee, including benefits, exceeds $110,000 a year.

Something’s gotta give. Or rather, somebody besides private citizens has gotta start giving.