The Biden administration is a walking hypocritical mess. At least we assume it is walking, with those extra-special no-fall-down shoes they’re making Biden wear these days.

As we have learned, the Biden administration is hyper-focused on navel-gazing. Apparently, it is a high priority for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to get rid of all this hurtful and harmful language that might make the DEI overlords hyperventilate. Like “blacklist.” And “cakewalk.” And we apparently REALLY need to think about how ODNI talks about terrorism inspired by the religion that shall not be named.

The unclassified newsletter from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, called “The Dive” and exclusively obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by The Daily Wire, argues in its cover story that the intelligence community needs to focus on “changing terminology related to counterterrorism,” because “words matter.”

“This article is about one of our goals: disentangling Islam from words and phrases used to discuss terrorism and extremist violence,” writes the author of the article, whose name was redacted from the document released to The Daily Wire. The article declares that it’s trying to remove “certain phrases to identify international terrorism threats that are hurtful to Muslim-Americans.”

“Some of the problematic phrases include, but are not limited to: ‘Salafi-Jihadist,’ ‘Jihadist,’ ‘Islamic-Extremist,’ ‘Sunni/Shia-Extremism,’ and ‘Radical Islamists.’”

But the ODNI newsletter didn’t stop at identifying “problematic phrases” pertaining to Islamic terrorism, in fact, the entire edition focused on purging “biased” terminology from the communications of the intelligence community.

Another portion of the newsletter went on to condemn the use of everyday terms like “cakewalk” and “blacklist,” accusing the words of being loaded with bias. Instead of saying “I’ve been blacklisted from this event,” for example, the ODNI newsletter tells personnel to say “I’ve been banned,” arguing that “blacklisted implies black is bad and white is good.” It claims that “cakewalk” should also be avoided because it allegedly “refers to a dance performed by slaves for slave owners on plantation grounds.”

Maybe this insanity is why the Russians refused to believe the American intelligence that we supposedly passed along to them about an impending attack in Moscow. If our sources were trying super-duper hard to not be offensive and call ISIS-K “Islamic extremists” and just went with “hey, bad guys are coming,” then maybe it’s not a shock that the Kremlin is now trying to pin the entire thing on Ukraine. After all, when you don’t get specific about who the bad guys are and what is motivating them, then who is to say that Putin can’t just pick his favorite target as the instigator?

Regardless, this entire exercise in exorcising “problematic phrases” from ODNI is beyond stupid because it is trying to deliberately obfuscate reality. Are Muslim-Americans really hurt when ISIS-K or Hamas is referred to as a “Islamic terrorist group” or “radical Jihadists” or anything specifically descriptive? Just because Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar whine about it, doesn’t make it wrong.

The supreme irony is that in all of these attempts to placate Muslim voters in Michigan, the Biden administration is still being forced to acknowledge that Hamas are the bad guys, even if they can’t say it out loud. Remember the humanitarian aid plan that Joe Biden announced during the State of the Union address? We’re gonna build a PIER, and it will get aid to Gaza! It will totally work! What could possibly go wrong?

You know, other than Hamas might shoot at the United States military being tasked with constructing this thing!

Absolutely stunning Q&A from Friday's Pentagon press briefing.

Q: Does the DoD anticipate that Hamas will try to fire on them, on the operation (inaudible)?

GEN. RYDER: Look, I mean, that's certainly a risk, again, but if Hamas truly does care about the Palestinian people, then…

— Richard Goldberg (@rich_goldberg) March 11, 2024

The complete quote from General Ryder was:

Look, I mean, that’s certainly a risk, again, but if Hamas truly does care about the Palestinian people, then again, one would hope that this international mission to deliver aid to people who need it would be able to happen unhindered.

Given the circumstances, I think it is safe to say that not even the pie-in-the-sky ODNI would believe that Hamas won’t try something. Which means that the Biden administration is asking Israel to watch our backs while the United States military builds this pier, and then we expect THEM to finish the job. And then protect our military while we play DoorDash into Gaza, apparently.

Under the plans being discussed, which have not yet been finalized, the Israel Defense Forces would establish a “security bubble” to protect the U.S. personnel building the pier as well as the individuals involved in offloading and distributing the aid, said one of the officials, both of whom were granted anonymity to speak about sensitive discussions.

The IDF would also be responsible for physically securing the pier to the beach, the officials said.

The U.S. is still in the planning stages and nothing has been finalized, the officials stressed. Another partner country may also be involved in providing some security, depending on where in Gaza the pier is ultimately built, they said.

A spokesperson for the IDF said it “will be coordinating with the U.S. military to facilitate the project indeed” but declined to provide specifics.

The plan is already complex: A team of U.S. military personnel will construct a floating pier 3 to 5 miles off shore and a 1,800-foot floating causeway that will be anchored to the beach. Once the infrastructure is in place, vessels will be able to offload aid onto the pier, where small U.S. boats will then bring it to the causeway. From there, it will be taken to trucks and then distributed into Gaza.

U.S. officials have said Israel will play a role in securing the pier, but have not specified what that role would be.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), a senior Armed Services Committee member, said last week that he has “very serious questions about how the construction will be done, with the assurance of safety to our troops.” Still, he added: “I’m convinced that this kind of humanitarian effort is absolutely necessary.”

Republicans, meanwhile, have harsher words for the idea. House Armed Services Chair Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) argued last week that the decision was politically motivated.

“I hate to say it, but I think this decision was politically driven by the president after Michigan,” Rogers said, referring to the “uncommitted” protest vote in that state’s primary against Biden over his handling of the Israel-Hamas war. “And he’s trying to be forward-leaning to try to do something to help the folks in Gaza from a humanitarian standpoint, but this is moving really fast and nobody can explain how it’s gonna work.”

So, the US is building a pier to help Gazans but Israel has to protect the builders from Gazans. Hmm….so much to unpack about this.

— Rose (@WhimsyWithStyle) March 27, 2024

Again, what could POSSIBLY go wrong here???

This situation is the Biden administration in a nutshell. Big, lofty, grandiosely stupid plans to remove “problematic” words to so that Muslim-American feelings don’t get hurt, while simultaneously showing Gaza just how much We Care™ by building a pier and bringing them food and aid, but demanding that Israel watch our asses because we know that Hamas will try and attack. And the second an American is injured by Hamas while doing this humanitarian work, how much do you want to bet that the administration blames Israel for not providing enough security??? How Israel isn’t telling Biden to take a long walk off his short pier, I have no idea.

Featured image: original Victory Girls art by Darleen Click