If your one of those who keeps an ear to the ground, listening for the rumble that would presage an event that means The End Really Is Near, I’ve been paying attention to ISIS or ISIL or whatever you’d care to call them. Obviously, within their sphere of influence, they are well armed, quite dangerous and apparently exceeding blood thirsty. The news media and our politicians have missed no opportunity to tell us in grim and excruciating detail just how dangerous and bloodthirsty they are, complete with stills and video.
Now, we’re told that they are planning on taking out a major American city, and fingers point at Chicago. (Apparently they decided no one would notice it they attacked Detroit.
While I have no real doubts about the existence and danger this current bunch of Islamic fascists pose, I’m not so sure that our politician on both sides of the aisle are not taking advantage of the situation to shore up their flagging fortunes. Face it–we have an idiot of a President who would rather play golf than stay in the Oval Office and work, a Veep who could easily double for the village idiot and a Congress with the lowest approval rating since two days before dirt. Even the sycophantic media has had to acknowledge that the American public is fed up and that those wicked L/libertarians are starting to get some traction with their nutter ideas. That alone is enough to scare our professional political class into soiling themselves en masse. A viable third (well, second) party cannot be allowed to come into existence!
And so, forgive me if I wonder if, in time-honored tradition, we are not setting up another bogeyman. With a son and daughter of prime draft age, I have skin in this game in a manner of speaking, and I do not want to see them die in some war brewed up to protect our political class.
As I age and see more and more of our government in action, I understand better and better just how naive and foolish I was in my younger years–even when those younger years were only a decade or so ago. I understand better and better why the Founding Fathers went to great lengths to attempt to ensure that the central government was weak and the state governments strong, and why they attempted to restrict the franchise. We have strayed from their wisdom, and we are daily paying the price. Our children and grandchildren and great and great-great grandchildren will be paying it as well.
We need to stop making that price increase. Before we attack another enemy, let’s be sure they are really a threat to us–our country, to all of us–and not just to the interests of of some sub-group of us.
The West has been fighting the Moslems on and off for more than a thousand years. I don't expect that will change any time soon, especially as Islamic fanaticism seems to be on the rise and making some gains on the ground. I wonder if we can even say we have a Southern border anymore, since thousands parade across in broad daylight. Given the volume of drugs coming North, it shouldn't be hard for the ISIS crew to ship whatever they want to into the U.S.
They don't strike me as people you can mess with and expect them not to hit back. Last I heard Western military intelligence thinks there may be as many as 3000 hard core fighters with Western passports in their "army." Given the proclivity for attacking malls, schools, and school buses the Islamic terrorists have shown in the past in Israel and other places, I can't see why they wouldn't do the same here.