The President, and those few who support his slow mo, hands tied behind our back, approach to combatting terrorism, often present a profoundly illogical and ultimately self-destructive justification for their halting approach to the war. They start from the premise that it is the United States’ fault that radical Islamists target Americans. They proceed from that false premise to the conclusion that if we do more than attempt to contain the menace we will stir up an even greater hornet’s nest in the Middle East, inciting even more terrorist enthusiasts to take us down.
They therefore prefer a defensive posture where we treat acts of terror as crimes justifying a policing action. That defeatist illogic is at the core of Obama’s belief structure and inaction. It is ultimately a creed that assures that terrorist acts become the “new normal” on American soil. For the majority of Americans who are not willing to accept that “new normal,” we have a very difficult task to undertake. We have got to find ways to overcome Presidential opposition to total war within the remaining year of Obama’s presidency or the seeds of terror now sewn in American soil will produce a thousand horrific blooms.
The notion that the United States is at fault for the rise of radical Islam is in error. Radical Islam is the by-product of clerics and supposed clerics in the Muslim community who are offended at the existence of Western civilization, who view all forms of Western culture as satanic, and who think it their divine duty to bring about an apocalypse in which jihad is waged culminating in a final battle between the true believers in their radical creed and all of the Western world. They despise us not simply because we went to war in the Middle East but because we are comprised of people who do not subscribe to their radical brand of Islam, refuse to replace Western law with the Sharia law, and refuse to replace our governments with a Caliphate of their making. Because we refuse to be blind followers of an Islamic theocratic dictatorship, we, like more moderate Muslims, like Europeans, and even Russians, are to be destroyed.
The notion that the United States must not be too aggressive in combatting Radical Islam because if we are that will merely stir up more terrorist opposition is profoundly illogical. There is but one direction for our dedicated enemy, to destroy us. When your enemy admits of no compromise and is intent on destroying you regardless of the cost, there is only one way to stop the menace and that is to locate and kill all involved in, conspiring to commit, financing, and aiding and abetting the terrorist cause. Nothing short of a total war dedicated to the complete destruction of terrorism will succeed in ending this menace. Anything short of that total war will allow lingering elements to remain, which will ensure more persistent acts of terror.
By imposing very limiting rules of engagement on American forces, by refusing to seek a declaration of war against identified terrorist organizations and those who provide those organizations’ agents aid and comfort; by refusing to commit troops on the ground in the form of special forces in a relentless, 24 hour a day campaign of destruction against terrorist cells, operatives, financiers and supporters outside of the United States; by appeasing the primary state sponsor of terrorism against the United States and its allies, the Islamic Republic of Iran; and by refusing to identify the true enemy, radical Islam, this President has ensured that the requisite effort needed to secure the United States and destroy the enemy will not be employed.
It is precisely because of his insistence on that halting approach to battle that this President endeavors to assuage American fears of terror through utterance of political pablum, by suggesting that the “new normal” is public acceptance of a degree of terror within our country, by suggesting that his actions are sufficient without need for change, that his actions are containing terrorism, and that other issues of importance to him, climate change, are far more important to the survival of America. The American people, however, are not impressed by a president who refuses to be a commander-in-chief and maintains political theater when military leadership is required. They refuse to become willing lambs to the slaughter, so this President can preserve a legacy based on a liberal domestic agenda.
The irreducible obligation of the President of the United States when the nation is under attack is to serve as a commander-in-chief and employ all means necessary to destroy the enemy, end the threat, and restore protection for life, liberty, and property. Obama has utterly failed to perform those roles. He refuses to serve as commander-in-chief, and he thereby ensures the proliferation of terrorism abroad and within the United States.
What then can Americans do over the coming year to defend themselves? It is up to each American citizen to avail themselves of their Second Amendment rights and become armed. Hundreds of thousands are doing just that. Gun sales are skyrocketing. If terrorists show up at your child’s school, the concert you are attending, the subway you are boarding, the sporting event you are attending, or the public gathering where your family has assembled, you must know in advance that steps have been taken to cut down the terrorist before he or she takes a life. Each of us has to be ready to act decisively to eliminate a person who is in the act of committing terror.
Each state should commence a program to train its citizens in self-defense but also in identifying and reporting to authorities the telltale signs of terrorist plotting, arming, and equipping. We need to be ever mindful of those who by their actions reveal probable cause of terrorism, and the police must investigate each such instance and act swiftly when probable cause is present to obtain warrants and perform searches and seizures.
Moreover, it is also the obligation of each state governor to employ the national guard to provide added security at all locations where people publicly assemble, to call upon off duty and retired military and police to bear arms and serve as an added layer of protection standing at the ready in all locations where people publicly assemble.
Each school should have armed and trained personnel capable of providing a rapid and devastating response if an act of terror is underway. Each state should pass legislation barring entry to any person who seeks to take up domicile in the state and hails originally from a country where terrorist training and recruitment is known to take place. Those individuals should be barred from entry unless and until they are thoroughly vetted by state authorities and can be proven to have maintained cordial relations with Americans within their former homeland; to have had no connections with anyone who sponsors, supports, aids or abets terror; and to have a present intention to become fully integrated into American society and culture and become an American citizen. Eternal vigilance remains the price of liberty, more so now than ever before.
© 2016 Jonathan W. Emord – All Rights Reserved
