by Robert M. Traxler
We have not seen a large terrorist attack form a foreign source for a very long time. In the past, we had one averaging every few years.
It begs the question: why? The theories are all over the place; however, my thoughts go to the battles of Fallujah, battles one, two and three, but mostly the second battle. The hard-core Islamists from around the world decided to make Fallujah their Alamo, their Stalingrad, their Okinawa. They came from around the entire planet and fought to the death to hold the city.
Hard-core Islamists came from Iraq, the Philippines, Chechnya, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Syria and many more nations; more than three thousand in the second of the three battles for the city. Thousands died, an entire generation of the most radical Islamists.
Add in ISIS and the hardcore Salafi Jihadist branch of Sunni Islam who died in Iraq and Syria, and the pool of the hard-core forces was reduced to the point of combat ineffectiveness; it is being rebuilt one terrorist at a time. Sept. 11 only required a few dozen radicals, the USS Cole a few dozen, the list goes on; of the dozens, less than half were willing to die for the cause. The leathernecks and dogfaces, but mostly Marines, removed thousands of terrorists from the gene pool and made us safer for a generation.
Google Fallujah and the first few references will charge the United States with war crimes because of the civilian casualties, proof positive that the ’”hate America first” and foremost crowd own the messaging. These are the same folks who will tell us the southern border is secure, global climate change will end the world by 2030/2050 is settled science not to be denied,
Qaedat al-Jihad or Al-Qaeda and the Taliban are not in league together, even though the head of Al-Qaeda was hiding out in a home owned by the number two Taliban leader when killed, the government spending trillions had nothing to do with inflation, and President Donald Trump is a paid Russian agent. Please do not forget to blindly believe them, or you are a racist, sexist, Islamophobe, a non-believer, a science denier. We must believe inflation is nonexistent and zero per our President; the 8.525% figure is a MAGA lie. Been to the grocery store lately?
Ayman al Zawahiri was the leader of the most active and infamous terrorist group in the world. In my opinion, Osama Ben Laden was the face of terror, but Dr. Zawahiri was the brain. Dr. Zawahiri was a surgeon and a man with a genius IQ and a long history of terror activity, going back to the assassination of President Anwar Sadat in Egypt in 1981. His being hosted by the Taliban in Afghanistan opens the linkage between the two groups that brought us 9/11.
The twenty-plus years since 9/11 have hopefully seen progress in intelligence gathering and HUMINT. Human intelligence agents on the ground are not as necessary as they were in 2001? I doubt it, but we can only hope that after our cutting and running from the now Islamic State of Afghanistan, the “over the horizon” strategist will work as well as HUMINT intelligence has in the past dozens of centuries. Our residual indigenous Afghani HUMINT assets were still in place when Dr. Zawahiri was dealt with; however, they are deteriorating every day we are not in Afghanistan.
A generation has been born after 9/11 and after the United States Marines with Army armor decimated the flower of Muslim extremists in Iraq. A new generation of radical Islamists is coming of age. The 9/11 terrorists were 24.2 years old on average. If history repeats itself, then we are due for an attack by the new generation of extremists.
The statement, “if we fight them overseas, we do not need to fight them here” was widely ridiculed by the progressive/socialists, but it was true. We should all hope and pray the CIA, NSA, and FBI are expending as much effort to prevent an attack as they have in persecuting and prosecuting President Trump and the January sixth protesters/attack. If we wait until the gunnels are awash to pump out the sinking ship or use a teaspoon to bail, it will once again be too late.
My opinion.
Still not a peep about the domestic terrorist living in his private golf club Mar-a-lago who is still defending the domestic terrorists who couldn’t pull off the attempted coup n January 6 and still casting doubt on US Federal elections because he lost.
There’s the whole take sensitive National Security documents to your retirement home on an ocean front golf course after losing the 2020 election. Then trying to claim the documents got a unique one man Presidential declassification AFTER they were retrieved from an insecure room. The raid occurred after the former White House resident falsely claimed all sensitive documents had been previously returned
Cat got your tongue?
Couchman, it looks like Army Bob has gone full Trumpy. Negative nicknames for any one who dos not agree with him opinions. I think if his beloved con man Donny would just tell the truth once and just disappear the CIA FBI and the DOJ would have a lot more time to focus on terrorism and radicals?
Trumpy and Donny using nicknames for those you disagree with? Gone full Trumpy have you?
Mr. Couchman,
Sir.
Let’s see, you still have been mute on the undeniable science, the fact the world will end in 2030; figured you were digging a hole in your yard to hide in. So Mr. Sofa-man are you still telling people they should not receive care for life threatening cancer if they deny climate change is destroying the world in eight years? Do you still feel people who doubt that the end of the world in eight years is undeniable science should just die?
The room you refer to was locked with two locks, and protected by armed Federal Agents, (Secret Service). We have missed your out and out prevarication. And were you talking about Senator Clinton who still maintains the election was stolen from her by President Trump and the Russians?
Please let us honor your service and let us know about your being a “Navy Veteran with battle experience” it must be an inspirational story, a SEAL a Corpsman a pilot, crew of what ship in battle? thank you for your service.
So Mr. Sofa-person please let those of us who disagree with your end of the world scenario and received treatment apologize to you for surviving cancer. Sir, you are a great example of the warm, caring Progressive/Socialist movement.