“We Are Woefully Unprepared!”
More Islamist Terror Is Coming. We Are Woefully Unprepared
There is cause to believe we have set ourselves up for the next Islamist campaign against America.
We have demobilized our counterterrorism efforts. Pretty much every instrument we established since 9/11 has been diverted, distracted, disabled or dismissed.
How do we stop them? By using our counterterrorism capabilities the way they were intended.
Al Qaeda first attacked the World Trade Center in 1993 with a car bomb in the underground garage. Americans heard about the attack on the evening news and then went out to McDonald’s for a burger and fries.
It was like the 911 operator called us and we put them on hold. Less than ten years later, the 9/11 attacks left 3,000 Americans dead.
We can’t make the same mistake. Even with the limited evidence we have so far, we know we have experienced a deadly, major synchronized Islamist terror attack on U.S. soil designed to send a message and inflict as many bloody casualties as possible. There is no reason why they can’t try that or worse again.
For a lot of reasons, there is cause to believe we have set ourselves up for the next Islamist campaign against America. Here are four.
First, ISIS and others are back. Biden’s humiliating withdrawal from Afghanistan reignited the hope that America really was the paper tiger that Usama Bin Laden claimed we were. He followed that with feckless policies in the Middle East and North Africa that gave both opportunities to rebuild and recruit and fed a global narrative that it was time to rise up and strike again.
Next, open borders are a death sentence. It doesn’t matter if the Vegas or New Orleans threats crossed over from Mexico or not. Biden has created an unprecedented vulnerability with porous borders and unlimited illegal migration that leaves us more vulnerable today than we were on 9/11. An unprecedented number of individuals on the terrorist watch list have entered the U.S. under the Biden presidency. This administration’s policies have handed the terrorists too many options.
Third, we have demobilized our counterterrorism efforts. Pretty much every instrument we established since 9/11 has been diverted, distracted, disabled or dismissed under Biden. We all know Biden’s top priorities for intelligence and law enforcement. They include persecuting his political enemies; protecting his family; investigating misdemeanors committed on January 6; surveilling school board meetings; meeting diversity, equity and climate goals; suppressing free speech; and demonizing conservatives at every opportunity.
We didn’t just take our eyes off the ball. We walked off the court.
Finally, Russia, China, and Iran are not our friends. Every round of global terrorism has had some measure of state sponsorship or support. Today, we can expect no different.
Beijing, Tehran, and Moscow know that Trump is going to take his heavy hand off the Bible in a few weeks and lay a meaty fist on them. They will be scrambling for underhanded ways to push back. Terrorism will be one of them. In fact, they are already doing this. Russia contracted for terrorist attacks in Germany. China dumped Israel on October 7. Iran has put out hit contracts on Americans.
AUTHOR
James Jay Carafano
Two people were killed in a series of terror attacks involving ramming and stabbing in northern Israel on Friday.
According to Magen David Adom, a report was received at 12:31 p.m. at the MDA 101 call center in the Gilboa region regarding an injured woman on Route 71 near Kibbutz Ein Harod.
The woman, aged 19, had been run over and then stabbed.
She was later pronounced dead at HaEmek Medical Center in Afula and identified as Aviv Maor from Ein Harod.
Shortly before, a man aged 68, identified later as Shimshon Mordechai, was fatally struck by a vehicle in Beit She’an in what police called a terrorist attack.
A 16-year-old boy was attacked in a separate ramming incident in the city and was reported to have light injuries.
A 37-year-old man was later wounded when the terrorist got out of his car and hit him with a rock outside Afula.
The single assailant in all four attacks—identified as a 37-year-old Palestinian man from Qabatiya, near Jenin—fled in his employer’s car after the attack on Route 71 toward Kibbutz Tel Yosef and was later shot and killed at the entrance to the city of Afula, police said.
He had been working illegally in Israel, the Kan public broadcaster reported.
Because of this administration’s weakness, today’s terrorists don’t try to think “outside the box.” They already have more deadly toys than could fit in Santa’s sleigh. The attack in New Orleans demonstrated the use of common and proven terrorist tactics that we have seen plenty of in recent years from Europe to the Middle East to North Africa. The handbook of terrorist tools is tried and proven. We can expect more of the same.
Today’s terrorists, however, can and are already starting to draw on proven modern battlefield tactics, often using dual-use technology with civilian and military applications that are being innovated in places like Ukraine, the Middle East and North Africa. We have already seen, for example, attempted attacks on energy infrastructure and the use of drones. Just like the way car bombs and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) made their way from combat situations to terror attacks, other means to create murder and mayhem could soon be coming to a community near you.
How do we stop them? By using our counterterrorism capabilities the way they were intended—not the knee-jerk response of the Bush years or the measured indifference under Obama, but the sensible, practical, and responsible actions taken during Trump’s first term that took us from lights blinking red to giving ISIS lights out.
©2025 Beverly Newman, Ed. D. All rights reserved.
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