Keller @ Large: Let's Not Destroy Ourselves
BOSTON (CBS) - Have you seen the stories recently about how the success of the U.S.-led coalition in targeting and killing leaders of Daesh - also known as ISIS - has them turning on each other, with dozens of them slaughtered by their own on suspicion of being informants?
That's what happens when self-destructive paranoia take over, its victims viciously lashing out.
That's them, and good riddance. But is it us, too?
Twelve years ago, in the first post-9/11 presidential election, some candidates who questioned our Homeland Security policies - including a disabled Vietnam War hero - had their patriotism challenged, a tactic that contributed to the bitter partisan rancor that overwhelms us today.
Now we're in the heat of another bitter election battle. President Obama's handling of the war on terror is perfectly fair game, as are the policies espoused by presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
But when Donald Trump questions which side the president is on, as he appeared to do after the Orlando murders when he hinted that Mr. Obama has "something else in mind" besides protecting the homeland, he's out of bounds.
This is the character assassination the New Yorker was spoofing with an infamous 2008 cover depicting the future president as a Manchurian candidate.
That was a satirical cartoon. The deadly serious repetition of its theme by a major-party presidential candidate is a new low in a campaign that, just when you think it can't go any lower, does so. Let's encourage Daesh to destroy themselves, but let's not do the same to ourselves.