Alan Colmes: Calling ISIS 'Evil' is 'What the Terrorists Want'

Talk radio host and Fox News contributor Alan Colmes argued that calling ISIS “evil” helps terrorists on Monday’s “Happening Now” on the Fox News Channel.  Colmes said “we went into Afghanistan to get the terrorist training camps, stayed there for twelve years, went into Iraq, that had nothing to do with 9/11. We risk the same reaction now, an overreaction.” And “based on what Stratfor [says]…these are a group of people who can’t even defeat the Sunnis in southern Iraq and yet, the level of threat that they present has been so overstated…yes, we have to confront it, we have to deal with it, but using words like ‘evil’ and revving people up is exactly what the terrorists want us to do.”  He cited Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe’s (R) claim that ISIS is “rapidly developing a method of blowing up a major American city” as an example of fear-mongering.

Colmes did criticize the optics of President Obama’s recent vacation, stating “I don’t believe the president should be photographed playing golf at this time, nor should he have been perhaps on vacation…this has been a bad move optically for the White House,” while arguing that the White House has condemned ISIS, adding “but, it’s so easy to say ‘oh they’re playing golf and talking about global warming’ when they have addressed this. In fact, John Kerry is one of the people who did call ISIS evil and I’m not sure that kind of rhetoric truly helps. I think, again, we’re playing into their hands by doing this.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett