"Does this new group of upstart terrorists scare us? Absolutely!"
And so it starts. Yesterday we heard on the news the Prime Minister of Iraq said the Iraqi Intelligence Service (yes, there is such a thing) discovered a plot to blow up subways in New York and/or Paris. All of a sudden, the alert level was raised in New York and extra police and dogs were put on patrol in most of the city's subway system. When the Prime Minister was pushed as how actionable this intelligence was, it seems like it might have been more bark than bite. Net result - terror won again. Without firing a shot, it involved fear and extra expense for people in New York.
One of the reasons I believe we fear having this new group make it to our heartland and doing great damage is simple - we have seen what they are capable of. Their treachery and butchery are well documented and never ending. Yesterday, it was reported they overran an Iraqi outpost not far from Baghdad. Over 100 Iraqi soldiers were captured and then executed. No Geneva Convention, to taking prisoners, no mercy. If you are caught by this group, you will die.
We all know the counter punch will come. ISIL and Khorasan (the new name for Al Qaeda) have told us they will. We have learned to take them at their word. The question I have heard asked more than once is this - are we playing offense or defense? Seems to me like it is a little of offense and a whole lot of defense. The other day I addressed the Lone Wolf issue. If a person has returned to this country after being trained by ISIS, it would be very simple to cause significant damage resulting in the death of innocent people. As the saying goes, our homeland is rich with soft and unprotected targets.
The rhetoric the President used at the UN the other day had some promise. Putting aside the apology tour about how bad we are, the speech did have some nuggets. Now we need to have our actions match our words. Rather than just tell ISIL we are going to get after them, we need to have our actions demonstrate that in spades. Rather than dispensing fear, I want each and every member of this terror group to feel fear 24 X 7. They need to understand the United States is NOT a paper tiger, and to kick sand in our face has swift and deadly consequences.
We also heard yesterday (not yet confirmed) that ISIL might have used chemical agents on Iraqi troops. As has been stated before, there is a witch's brew of bad stuff all over that land. Some from Assad, some left over from Saddam. It would not be very hard indeed for this group to buy of steal some of it. Could you imagine terrorists carrying nerve agents making it across our southern border?
One ranking General stated earlier this week this campaign could go on for years. At this pace, it could go on forever. Even after bombing ISIL in Iraq for over two months, we could not contain them enough to protect Iraqi troops. The President said he did not want to use "shock and awe". Why not? Too much like G.W. Bush? I for one, would love to see some "shock and awe" - and lots of it. I want to show the terrorists just what real "terror" is.
Time to take the gloves off. Time to get real. We need to get engaged with this group. We need to get up close and personal. We have war fighters that are professional and know how to handle people like this. Bomb them for a month straight, using over 100 sorties a day. Embed our Special Operators in with the Iraqi troops. People in this country don't want to live like this. We are tired of being almost stripped naked just to get on an airplane. It is time to open the kennels and unleash the dogs of war - our dogs of war.
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