Let the record show that Democrats are also capable of saying very stupid things they clearly didn't spend a great deal of time thinking about.
Representative Stephen Lynch (D-MA) made an appearance on Boston Herald Radio yesterday where criticizes the Obama administration for not immediately launching an attack on ISIS in response to the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando.
That's a silly thing to say for more than one reason, but here's what he actually said.
“I would have liked to have seen a pronounced effort right after Orlando. They called for this. They struck American citizens and we should have a show of force to send a message,” Lynch told Boston Herald Radio when asked if it’s time for Obama to officially declare war on ISIS beyond ongoing air strikes. "Unfortunately, because of their co-location with innocent civilians, using them as a shield, it's very difficult for us to get at some of these insurgents without putting those civilians in great danger. That's our challenge."
Congressman Lynch also criticized the president for not using the magic words "Islamic extremists," which is another stupid talking point, but I digress.
ISIS did not strike American citizens in Orlando. The shooter had no clear connection to ISIS. He was not ordered by ISIS to carry out the attack. The director of the CIA appeared in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee last week and said they've found no evidence linking the shooter to ISIS. A man claiming to be the shooter's former lover told Univision today that he did it because he was angry at gay Latino men, but we may never know the whole story.
In any event, Congressman Lynch's call to strike back is a misnomer not just because the shooter had no clear connection to ISIS. We've been bombing ISIS every week for over a year in a campaign that began in 2014. American forces and our allies have hit literally tens of thousands of targets over many months.
I regularly call out Republican politicians who falsely imply that we haven't hit ISIS so I'm definitely going to call out a Democratic congressman who goes there, especially one who goes there under false pretense. There's not a great deal of difference between what Lynch said and what Governor Chris Christie said. Christie called for responding to the Orlando shooting with a military strike on an unspecified location.