Shot in the Dark

An ISIS Victory On American Soil

David French at National Review notes that ISIS has won both a tactical and strategic victory in Orlando – and done it on the cheap:

On Sunday, June 12, ISIS won a dramatic victory. Without risking any of its terror assets and without having to spend one dime of its financial assets, an ISIS volunteer vindicated its strategy of inspiring terrorist acts and launched the deadliest attack on U.S. soil since 9/11. The act not only shattered the lives of the victims and their families. It no doubt inspired still more jihadists to plot their own attacks both at home and abroad. Facing battlefield reverses in Iraq and Syria, ISIS struck back at its chief enemy. But the wins didn’t stop there. Incredibly, ISIS won not just in Orlando. It’s winning the aftermath. The American response to the attack has been beyond ineffective, veering decisively toward the counterproductive. We’re doing nothing more to deter or prevent terror attacks and everything to deceive our own people about the true nature of the threat. Rather than unite to fight a common enemy, we’re dissolving into partisan, polarizing stupidity.

Going after the NRA over Orlando – which many politically and socially prominent gays and media figures are doing – is a little like attacking the Eastern Orthodox Church over Hitler’s invasion of Russia; they weren’t there, and they had nothing to do with it.

French notes the deepening vacuity of our political class in dealing with this:

  • The western and moderate Muslim world’s campaign against ISIS remains dilatory and indecisive.
  • It’s not only validated ISIS’s latest tactic of farming out its terrorism in the West to “do it yourselfers” who get their information from ISIS’s very polished print and web presence, it gave them a poster boy with a big victory.
  • The entire US response so far?  Jabbering about gun control (which doesn’t affect terrorists in the least – even if you went door to door and grabbed every gun in the United States tomorrow, they could switch to gasoline, dynamite or knives), scabrous pronouncements against Christians and gun owners.

Everything but the two things that would work:  getting serious about ISIS, which is not only not the “JV team”, but is running rings around Barack Obama, and decreasing the number of places where citizens are rendered statutorily helpless targets.

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21 responses to “An ISIS Victory On American Soil”

  1. fast richard Avatar
    fast richard

    “we’re dissolving into partisan, polarizing stupidity”

    That seems to sum up this entire year, including the elections.

  2. In The Mailbox: 06.17.16 : The Other McCain

    […] Federal Judge Dismisses Texas Lawsuit Against Resettlement Of Syrian Refugees Shot In The Dark: An ISIS Victory On American Soil The Jawa Report: Sandcrawler PSA – All Of Us Are Targets The Lonely Conservative: Democrat […]

  3. Emery Avatar
    Emery

    Fear smothers rational debate. It is meant to.

  4. Bento Guzman Avatar
    Bento Guzman

    Compare this list from French’s article with Peev’s list:

    From April to June, 2014, Ali Muhammed Brown killed four Americans on a “mission of vengeance” against the United States.

    On September 25, 2014, Alton Nolen beheaded an Oklahoma woman with a knife. His social media pages were covered with evidence of jihadist leanings and motivations.

    On May 3, 2015, Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi attacked an exhibit of Mohammed images in Garland, Texas. They wounded a security officer, but police killed them before they were able to carry out mass murder.

    On July 16, 2015, Mohammad Abdulazeez killed five people at two Chattanooga recruiting stations. FBI director James Comey declared that Abdulazeez was “inspired/motivated” by terrorist propaganda.

    On November 4, 2015, Faisal Mohammed went on an ISIS-inspired stabbing spree — wounding four — before he was killed by campus police.

    On December 2, 2015, Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik pledged allegiance to ISIS then killed 14 people and wounded 21 at a Christmas party in San Bernardino, Calif.

    On January 8, 2015, Edward Archer pledged himself to ISIS and attempted to assassinate a Philadelphia police officer. The wounded officer chased down and apprehended Archer before he could commit any other acts of violence.

    On June 12, 2016, Omar Mateen pledged himself to ISIS and killed 49 people and wounds 53 at a gay nightclub in Orlando. This death toll at home is augmented by an extraordinary toll overseas — with Paris facing repeated violent attacks, Brussels bombed, a Russian airliner brought down, and ISIS-inspired violence reaching all the way to Australia.

    This list only goes back two years. Peev had to go back two decades to get a small fraction of the incidents and death toll of the Islamic terrorist attacks within the United states since April 2014.

  5. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    Bento,

    You found what I was looking for for a future post.

    I’m gonna borrow this. Thanks.

  6. Bento Guzman Avatar
    Bento Guzman

    I think there are some very interesting differences between typical Islamist terrorist attacks in the US and domestic ‘right wing’ terrorist attacks. I put the quotes around right wing because there tends to be a split (with some overlap) between anti-federal government extremists (like McVeigh and Nichols) and anti-abortion extremists (like Rudolph). It is interesting that so many domestic ‘right wing’ terrorists come from the same background: blue collar, low level of education, white. The scenario of neo-nazi corporate executives planning racially motivated terrorist attacks from corporate boardrooms and on golf courses is utter fantasy.
    Islamic terrorists come from far more varied economic and educational backgrounds. They also tend to take instructions from people higher up in the organization (even the so-called ‘lone wolf’ attackers like Mateen). Islamist terrorists also tend to be regular mosque attendees. For all the talk about right wing Christian terrorists, few of these have received formal religious instruction or regularly attended church.

  7. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    few of these have received formal religious instruction or regularly attended church.

    McVeigh, the big one, called himself an “agnostic” while on death row, although he did get Catholic last rites.

  8. Emery Avatar
    Emery

    I haven’t seen anyone on this thread proposing gun policies to thwart terrorism.
    Under all regimes and rules a lone wolf can procure a gun. For me, Orlando is less about terrorists and more about mentally unstable loners. This one was a homosexual homophone who tossed in an eleventh-hour shout out to ISIS. If this individual (Mateen) was all that ISIS had to throw at us, we could feel fairly secure (in the aggregate). But he wasn’t thrown at us by ISIS — he just called-in for a little extra publicity.

  9. Yossarian Avatar
    Yossarian

    Ah, the good old homophone. I used to own one but no one could understand me with that damned ball gag receiver attachment.

  10. swiftee Avatar
    swiftee

    No Emery.

    If you were to spend time reading for anything but plagiarizing material, you’d know an extensive background search has come up with bupkis evidence he was a frustrated homo.

    That is a narrative the left concocted because it suits their agenda.

    Mateen was a Muzzy on a mission. He probably didn’t get orders from headquarters, but he was clearly motivated by his blood cult religion.

  11. swiftee Avatar
    swiftee

    Yos; heh.

  12. swiftee Avatar
    swiftee

    And let us not forget; Mateen was refused bulk ammo and tactical gear by a right wing gun fetishist that ALLERTED THE FBI TO THE THREAT DAYS AHEAD OF TIME.

    Maybe the FBI could have spared a couple agents to check it out if they weren’t so damn busy gathering evidence of high treason against the Democrat candidate for POTUS.

  13. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    But he wasn’t thrown at us by ISIS — he just called-in for a little extra publicity.

    Evidence seems to put that assertion in some jeopardy.

    And it is really irrelevant, since to ISIS – and their current plan to farm out terror in the west to people like Mateen, Nidal Hassan, and Tashfeen Malik and Syed Rizwan Farook – it’s a distinction without a difference.

  14. Joe Doakes Avatar
    Joe Doakes

    Has it been long enough since Orlando that I can go back to the really pressing issue: bathrooms?

    Although, now that I think of it, does a gay men’s nightclub even HAVE a ladies’ room? Or wait, maybe it ONLY has a “ladies” room?

    Too confusing – better stick to guns.

  15. Bento Guzman Avatar
    Bento Guzman

    If you were to spend time reading for anything but plagiarizing material, you’d know an extensive background search has come up with bupkis evidence he was a frustrated homo.
    That is a narrative the left concocted because it suits their agenda.

    Everything I’ve seen about Mateen being a closeted homosexual is based on hearsay.

  16. Emery Avatar
    Emery

    BG, you are correct .
    Perhaps we can also agree that we should not waste ink/keystrokes on the question of the impact of AR 15s on general crime.

  17. Bento Guzman Avatar
    Bento Guzman

    Emery, from what I understand, rifles are used in a miniscule percentage of murders.
    In earlier cases of Islamist ‘lone wolf’ attacks in the US, investigation has revealed far more contact with extremists than was first suspected (I am talking about Fort Hood and San Bernardino specifically). It is disturbing if Mateen’s plans were known by others and not reported. This means the guilt lies not only with a single, possibly insane individual, but with those who chose not to say anything.

  18. Emery Avatar
    Emery

    Yes, “rifles are used in a miniscule percentage of murders”. That was my point.

  19. Bento Guzman Avatar
    Bento Guzman

    At least when the GOP grandstanded Obamacare and the budget resolution they would have been happy to win.
    Any attempt to ban gun purchases by people on the terrorism watch list and the no-fly list would single out democrat constituencies for extra-judicial punishment.
    Most gun crimes are committed by young men, and especially Black and Hispanic young men. A concrete step that could be taken to actually reduce gun crime would be to increase the penalties for committing gun crime. This would both act as a disincentive to use guns in the commission of a crime, and would lock up those who persisted in using guns to commit crimes. But this would result in more Blacks and Hispanics in jail. Can’t have that.

  20. justplainangry Avatar
    justplainangry

    I haven’t seen anyone on this thread proposing gun policies to thwart terrorism. Not the subject of the post nor thread. A strawman.

    Under all regimes and rules a lone wolf can procure a gun. WRONG

    For me, Orlando is less about terrorists and more about mentally unstable loners. To you, not a rational being with a an engaged brain.

    This one was a homosexual homophone who tossed in an eleventh-hour shout out to ISIS. Takes one to know one, I guess, plus no concrete evidence, unlike Islamist threats and behavior back to hour 5.

    If this individual (Mateen) was all that ISIS had to throw at us, we could feel fairly secure (in the aggregate). Once again, 49 dead means nothing to eTASS. There is no pattern of islamists picking up steam, San Bernardino was just a figment of the imagination.

    But he wasn’t thrown at us by ISIS — he just called-in for a little extra publicity. Past history would suggest otherwise, but then facts are not for libturds with an agenda.

    Fear smothers rational debate. It is meant to. You are right about that. There is no having a rational debate with braindead zombies like you.

  21. kel Avatar
    kel

    “There is no having a rational debate with braindead zombies like you.”
    but there is ammunition for zombies: 308 Win 168 gr Zombie-MAX™ https://www.hornady.com/store/308-Win-168-gr-Z-MAX/

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