Jihadis hate us. It isn't our fault. We ignore that at our peril.
There are plenty of jihadis out there. See here, for example.
Neither al Qaeda nor the Islamic State threaten the U.S. homeland directly. Nor can their various affiliates strike the United States. A near-decade-long trend of localizing jihad has continued, ensuring that the Salafi-jihadi terrorism threat remains regional if present at all. ...
Though the pursuit of global jihad has taken a back seat to local efforts, it is not dead. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula—what used to be al Qaeda’s most virulent franchise—remains committed to attacking the West. U.S. intelligence analysts missed the first time the group decided to strike, the so-called underwear bomb attack in December 2009, and could again miss an attack from one of the most innovative groups. Al Shabaab, in Somalia, has recently demonstrated its intent to carry through on attacks in the West. A cell was disrupted a few years ago planning another 9/11-style attack, only stopped because the United States “stumbled” on information about the plot.
We've come a long way from [the threat evident on September 11, 2001]. What Sunni-majority state supports terrorists who target America? How many states now work with us to fight terrorists--including Iraq, which is amazingly overlooked? What terrorist groups seem poised to strike big at our homeland today? ...
I've long said that our war on terror is a holding action to prevent collateral damage from the Islamic Civil War from hurting Americans at home. In many ways we've done that and paid the price to achieve it.
While there are still military tasks to be done in the fight against jihadis, America and the West need different tools from those that dominated in the decade after 9/11 to finally defeat the Islamo-fascists that wish to kill and define all of Islam as an expression of that will to kill.
But we probably will fail to adapt to what still must be done, dismissing the jihadi threat. Possibly because we are ignorant, as the author notes:
Meanwhile, the risk the U.S. intelligence community will fail to connect the dots of an unfolding terror attack is rising. The U.S. military retreat from counterterrorism theaters directly affects the quality of the intelligence picture. ... The new “over-the-horizon” counterterrorism posture seems much better suited to targeting known individuals and threats than identifying new ones.
Waging war on jihadis from a distance is not nearly as effective as supporting a friendly government that wages war on jihadis.
The government keeps telling us that we can fight terrorist jihadis in Afghanistan without being in Afghanistan. They're fooling themselves to tell us that[.]
We'll roll along thinking that problem is gone. In part because we can't see the threats.
And we'll even justify our inattention by claiming our war on terror was a counter-productive fiasco. Some will invert the jihadi hate-fueled murder sprees and America's response to claim our fight against the jihadis caused the hate-fueled murder. And that we are, of course, now focused on the "real" threats to America. That could be China, or Russia, or even--God help us--climate change.
As if we can only deal with one problem at a time.
Until another mass-murder attack here.
Have a super sparkly day.
UPDATE: Obviously my challenge to name a Sunni-majority state that supports terrorists trying to kill Americans is obsolete since 2021 when we screwed the pooch in Afghanistan.
NOTE: Winter War of 2022 coverage continues here.
