From the Yemen mosque bombing to the downed Russian airliner in Egypt to the Paris attacks and the San Bernardino massacre, the list of Islamic State claimed strikes continue to mount.
After the chaos in Belgium, social media lit up with prayers, pain and people sharing their grief on a global scale. But in the middle of all of those tweets and posts were noticeably more messages of anger and frustration that nothing is ever done to truly stop or at least make it harder for something like it from happening again.
Cuban President Raul Castro, right, and U.S. President Barack Obama attend a baseball match between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Cuban national baseball team in Havana, Cuba, Tuesday, March 22, 2016. (Ismael Francisco/Cubadebate via AP)
Which is why I turned the volume up on the TV when President Barack Obama made a statement about the incident in Brussels.
It lasted less than a minute and it was just to say that we stand united with Belgium during this difficult time and we'll be supportive.
That was it. The leader of the free world offered little more than a Hallmark card's worth of encouragement before he trotted off to a ball game with a dictator.
The world is on fire and the president of the United States is missing in action because it would seem he just doesn't care enough about it to do anything that would make a difference.
Obama arrived in communist-led Havana earlier this week with the first family to, as he says, "extend the hand of friendship to the Cuban people.” His mission immediately fell flat when Cuban President Raul Castro chose to be somewhere other than the tarmac for Air Force One's arrival.
Make no mistake, this trip is about Obama's legacy. He doesn't legitimately care what happens between us and Cuba. There's nothing he can do in what's left of his term to even make a dent. He wants the world to see him as the great uniter-in-chief. Where the history books write beautiful words about how spectacular he was at elevating diplomacy.
That's why he couldn't be bothered for more than a generic "too bad" statement about the terrorists he has consistently downplayed as the "JV team."
But we've seen this apathetic approach from Obama before.
When there have been moments where the might of the United States could have been a beacon for others, he yawned. One of the most notable was when the people of Iran rose up against their oppressive government in 2009, Obama was silent when it mattered most and only appeased the Iranian regime after the fact.
If he wasn't calling terror attacks "lone wolf" incidents or claiming they were "workplace violence" issues, he would try his best not to use the word terrorism at all if he could help it. After large scale attacks on the homeland and around the globe, he would always talk about uniting and standing against such actions while contorting himself in an effort to omit linking such events to Islam.
Also included in most of Obama's after-attack condemnations, would be consistent promises of doing whatever it took to help those affected and stop something like it from happening again. The only thing that he's actually supported to date are a few air assaults here and there on Islamic State.
There has been such a lack of urgency and commitment on behalf of the president, I can't help but feel he's never truly cared about eliminating Islamic State at all. If that were the case he would have led the effort to wipe the radical group off the map a long time ago and sent the message that the land of the free and the home of the brave should have sent to anyone else with such intentions to terrorize innocent people.
But here we sit. In the same position we've been in after every attack before it. Wondering when the next one will happen and why no one is doing anything about it.
Islamic State isn't going anywhere just because they are ignored. In fact, allowing them the gift of time only allows them the opportunity to potentially get their hands on a biological or chemical weapon.
We need someone who will stand up to these animals the right way with the right tactics and the right mission to send them back to the ninth century with their precious end-times ideology.
President Obama, the world comes together after each of these heinous atrocities because we want to see justice. We don't need someone to agree with us and then do the wave at a baseball game. We need a leader.
Wade Heath is a speaker, columnist and founder of the Do Good. Be Great. millennial movement. For booking contact: Events@WadeHeath.com.
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