AFTER the slaughter by Omar Mateen in Orlando, Barack Obama said, “Americans must decide what kind of country we want to be.”

The president condemned the nightclub massacre, which killed 49 people and injured 53, as an “act of terror and hate.in which the mass-murderer was armed with a handgun and a powerful assault rifle.”

He elaborated: “This massacre is a further reminder of how easy it is for someone to get their hands on a weapon that lets them shoot people in a school, or in a house of worship, or in a movie theatre, or a nightclub. To do nothing is a decision as well.”

The president’s interpretation of what took place in Orlando beggars belief. He described the killings as if they were just one more example of those occasional mindless slaughters perpetrated by a “lone wolf” in the teeth of overwhelming evidence to the contrary: the killer phoned the police and confirmed his allegiance to Islamic State before beginning his killing spree; he cheered the 9/11 terrorists and congratulated the 2013 Boston bomber; he was radicalised through the Internet; he had been interviewed twice by the FBI as a terrorist suspect; and after the atrocity, IS confirmed Mateen as one of theirs.

These murders had nothing to do with gun control. For decades, militant Muslims have been conducting terrorist acts on three continents. Does Obama expect us to swallow the absurd conjecture that if only the US senate would pass laws to restrict the availability of firearms, then this jihadist terrorism would cease? There are gun laws in France but they didn’t prevent the Paris shootings. Would the 7/7 bombings in London have been prevented if only the British government had earlier declared the prohibition of suicide vests?

Obama is in denial when it comes to ascribing responsibility for terrorist attacks. Nothing – not even the naked truth staring him in the face – will induce him to use the “M” word. Over the years of his effete presidency, he has refined evasiveness and inaction into an art form. He ought to have the letters TAP inscribed after his name: The Absent President.

The morning after the massacre, I looked at the front pages of the British newspapers. Metro mentioned “Daesh fanatic”; The Mirror “Isis maniac”; The Sun “IS killer”; The Times “Killer’s allegiance to Isis”; Daily Telegraph “Isis wages war on gays.” Even The Guardian led with an account of the gunman’s “Isis pledge.” So it looks as if, by what he refuses to say, Obama has excluded himself from the community of the sane and the truthful.

Almost, but not quite. Not entirely. We can always rely on the BBC. I listened in vain for any hint in their coverage that the Orlando atrocity – like so many that came before it and will unfortunately follow – has anything to do with Islam. Instead, the Beeb was at one with The Absent President in putting the blame on the lack of gun control laws. But the BBC is no one-trick pony: if poor gun laws were to blame on the Monday, by Tuesday they were saying it was all down to Mateen’s “repressed sexuality.” Anything but Muslim fanaticism.

Listen up Obama PAT and prick up your ears Auntie Beeb: we are not going to win this war until we’re prepared to recognise that there is a war going on.