PrintJames Taylor: Warrior against Islamic extremism
As terrorists and Belgian police engaged in a firefight in the city of Verviers that resulted in the death of two terrorists and the capture of another, a few hours later and a couple of hundred miles away, James Taylor sat down in the ornate Paris City Hall and began to strum his guitar. "You've Got a Friend," he crooned to the French people. Meanwhile, a continent-wide dragnet was sweeping up two dozen more terrorists in a huge security operation that sought to head off more terrorist attacks like the one that rocked France a week ago.
The incongruity of a pop-rock artist singing a '60s-era song of hippie love and armed, radical, violent jihadists running loose in Europe at exactly the same time is too obvious to dismiss. John Kerry brought James Taylor to Paris. The jihadists brought death and misery. (See Robert Morrison's excellent article in today's AT).
Recall that Kerry was in Paris because of the administration's failure to send anyone higher than an Obama bundler who serves as ambassador to France to a massive demonstration against terrorism. Wouldn't it have been better if Kerry brought Axl Rose or some other heavy-metal intimidating rocker instead of the gentle hippie icon Taylor? Ted Nugent would have been a perfect choice, except he can't stand Kerry and wouldn't give him the time of day.
In truth, Kerry's bizarre, incongruous choice in bringing Taylor to the ceremony at city hall to show America's commitment to French efforts at fighting terrorism was ignored by the American media for the most part.
On Friday, while all three network morning shows covered Secretary of State John Kerry arriving in Paris to offer U.S. condolences following the recent terrorist attacks, none of the broadcasts mentioned one of the most embarrassing moments in American diplomatic history that occurred during the visit – Kerry bringing musician James Taylor to a press conference to sing "You've Got A Friend" to the French people.
The bizarre attempt at international damage control – following the Obama administration's failure to have a single top U.S. official attend a anti-terror march in Paris on Sunday – played out while the NBC, ABC, and CBS morning shows were on the air. NBC chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell reported the musical incident on Twitter at 8:01 a.m. ET. Later on her 12 p.m. ET MSNBC show, Mitchell referred to the moment as "a somewhat awkward musical make-good."
The morning shows each gave only seconds to Kerry's Paris trip, focusing on him laying wreaths at the sites of the attacks but avoiding his appearance with Taylor.
Only CBS This Morning actually noted that the visit was designed to fix a major misstep by the White House, as co-host Gayle King explained: "[Kerry] arrived in Paris days after the U.S. was blasted for not sending a top official to Sunday's giant unity rally."
If this was supposed to be some kind of demonstration of "soft power," you would think the administration would have chosen some other way to show that. Instead of "soft power," they demonstrated powerlessness in the face of a fanatically determined foe.
Not exactly the message anyone with half a brain would have sent.
