Terrorism
With the acknowledgement that ISIS – the Islamic terrorist group so extreme that it has been rejected by al Qaeda – having recruited more than a thousand Americans to go fight for jihad, comes the worry that one or more of these individuals could return to the United States and wreak horror back home.
What could they do? Well, these are people who are proficient with weapons and are suicidally dedicated. That’s a bad combination.
So what are we doing about it?
Plenty. Since September 11, 2001 we have spent trillions and created entire new bureaucracies to combat homeland terrorism.
And yet. . .
And yet. . .
During this same 13-year timeframe, we have had nearly innumerable mass shootings, including one that almost killed a United States Representative in Arizona and one in Connecticut so horrible that it was almost beyond belief. These events that have been so common as to no longer even arouse any real interest, have wreaked far more horror and lasting grief than all the terrorism combined.
And the governmental response:
Nothing.
The renown epidemiologist and bioterror expert Dr. Michael Osterholm has stated that in this country, we seem to have a permanent disconnect between what can kill us, what can hurt us, and what just makes us uncomfortable, and our reactions to each are mis-calibrated accordingly.
Just a thought.
We have a world full of angry, alienated young men. They are the cannon fodder for the charismatic evil leader who uses them to gain power much as Hitler used his brown shirts in Germany. I’ve been aware of this in the US since the 80’s, and am not optimistic about where we going if this continues. We used programs and institutions to ameliorate the problem. Additionally individuals within institutions like education took adolescents under their wing.
Very good observations.