America’s Complacency May Well Bring Caliphate

The self-declared ‘Islamic State’ is a direct threat to America— and a greater threat than many Americans realize.  Some in the U.S., including some of our policymakers, maintain that the Islamic State is simply a warring faction in an internal, sectarian conflict exclusive to Iraq.  They are sadly mistaken.

 

The Islamic State is now known to be operating in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon; and there are credible reports that it is also at work in Libya. Even Abu Sayyaf, the Filipino jihadist terrorist organization, with its base of operations some 5,000 miles away from Mosul, Iraq, has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.  Moreover, the Islamic State reportedly has recruits from the U.S., Great Britain, Western Europe and just about every Islamic nation around the globe … some 20,000 fighters by some estimates.  There have been public demonstrations in support of the Islamic State in the Netherlands, Austria and Indonesia.  But, most ominously, the Islamic State’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, has promised to “see us in New York.”

 

America must not ignore this grave threat or allow it to metastasize overseas, because there can be no doubt that a jihadist organization like the Islamic State that is already committing genocide and other atrocities, will follow through on its threats.

 

It may seem ridiculous when the Islamic State claims to be bent on raising “the flag of Allah in the White House,” but, rest assured, they are dead serious about trying, and as they have said: “We are here America near our target sooooon.  We are everywhere.”

 

A complacent America ignored the warning signs leading up to 9/11 — the threats from Osama bin Laden and his allies, the terrorist attacks on American targets overseas — and the result was September 11th.  We must never be complacent again.  We must be forever vigilant.

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel