by
COLONEL DONALD J. MYERS USMC (Ret)
It seems that the mainstream media and the president are going out of their way to try and present the latest terrorist attack in California as something other than what it is. I watched the news and shifted to various channels for quite a while on Wednesday and then turned the TV off. The questions and the analyses by supposedly expert individuals are mind boggling. Watching newscasters try to fill time and simultaneously attempt to appear all knowledgeable is funny if not for the seriousness of the situation. The suspects probably did this or did that and probably did. The speculation went on for hours and continued to the present time. The name of the key terrorist (Syed Farook) was known for hours, but no one released it for some fear or other. The home of the criminals was a lab for creating numerous bombs and IEDs. That does not relate to work place violence. The adage of “know your enemy” does not apply to this administration. It won’t even name it much less know it.
How many more times must we be hit before we become serious about fighting radical Islamists? We continue to hear that Islam is a peaceful religion, but if one desires to live by Sharia Law how can that be? Infidels are to be killed if they do not adopt Islam. Other religions attempt to convert individuals to their religion, but they do not say kill them if they do not convert. That is a huge difference.
ISIS is doing a superb job in recruiting new members, and we contribute to that by not fighting effectively. The restrictions on our air strikes are such that they in effect are almost worthless. We apparently have areas in this country that have large Muslim populations that do not care to assimilate to the American culture. They apparently came to this country to escape from injustices in their country. What puzzles me is why they would want to institute those same rules that caused them to leave their former country? It does not add up.
As long as we continue to pussy foot around the issue of terrorism by radical Islamists we will never defeat it. This is a first for this country. We have never had a problem in identifying an enemy that we fought from the Revolutionary War forward. Why should this be any different? The answer constantly returns to the one individual responsible- the president. The problem is that no one can truly explain why. As long as that remains, there will be no positive movement in defeating radical Islamists, and we will continue to swat flies rather than defeat the enemy.
As an aside, a drug abuser or drunk will never recover no matter how may times he goes to rehab unless he decides to change. The same is true about fighting a war; one will ever win unless he decides that he will win. Talking about it and refusing to face it is not the same as confronting it. We must demand that our country faces it and defeat it. If those in authority will not do it, then we need to elect someone who will.That is up to us.
Donald J. Myers is a retired Marine colonel and can be reached at dmyersusmc@tampabay.rr.com