Shortly after the Islamic State group took credit for the Brussels terror attack last week, President Barack Obama made a statement that was probably intended to be comforting.
Instead, it should terrify anyone who understands what he really meant.
“Groups like ISIL can’t destroy us. They can’t defeat us. They don’t produce anything,” the president said. “They’re not an existential threat to us.”
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And for the most part, Obama was right. And that’s exactly what’s so frightening about his words.
Trust me; I don’t much like admitting that Obama is right about something. (Luckily, it doesn’t happen often.) But truth is truth, no matter who utters it and regardless of what the moral relativists would have you believe.
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An “existential threat” is just what it sounds like — a threat to our existence. Does anyone really think that the barbarians of the Islamic State group have the power to end the existence of the United States?
They don’t. How do I know? Because if they had access to that sort of power, they would have already used it. They’re not waiting for their hair to dry or the stars to align. They want us dead, and they want us dead now. If they could make that happen, you wouldn’t be reading this right now.
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Only a day after ISIS took credit for the terror attack in Brussels, Obama said "ISIS is not an existential threat."https://t.co/NyiPu72SFl
— GOP (@GOP) March 23, 2016
But again, that’s what makes Obama’s position regarding the Islamic State group what an old friend of mine might have called “stupid scary.”
Obama sought to reassure the American people that the nation isn’t in any real danger from the brutal Islamists because he doesn’t plan to do anything more effective against the terror army than he’s already doing. His argument is that he doesn’t need to, and that should frighten any thinking person.
Because the Islamic State group may not be an existential threat to us, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a threat. The San Bernardino shooting proved that beyond the ability of even the most ardent Islamapologist to deny.
And as heinous as that event was, it pales in comparison to other attacks that the terrorists are likely to be able to launch in the near future if nothing is done to stop them.
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The FBI has previously warned about terrorist training camps already present in the United States. The Border Patrol has stopped numerous men of Middle Eastern descent trying to enter the U.S. illegally through the porous southern border — and who knows how many have entered without being apprehended, or where they are now?
Islamic State group terrorists could launch chemical attacks or additional mass shootings, detonate a “dirty bomb” or small nuclear warhead in a densely populated city, or even attack the nation’s vulnerable electrical grid, potentially plunging millions of people into darkness for an unknown period of time, but probably at least months.
NSA Chief Warns "Lights Out" Attack On U.S. Power Grid… ‘Not A Myth But A Coming Reality" https://t.co/44jj6tZmxT
— Atlas News (@AtlasNews7) March 27, 2016
Are any of those threats existential? Would any of those attacks end the United States?
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Well, you’d have to have a lot less faith in the average American than I do to think that such attacks would somehow end us, even though they could of course be devastating. In reality, I suspect attacks like those would unite Americans like we haven’t been since World War II.
The Islamic State group should consider carefully before waking a sleeping giant like that.
But, while not existential, such attacks may be inevitable — at least while we continue to be “led” by a president who apparently believes that if the Islamic State group is not an existential threat, then it’s barely any threat at all.
George Upper is the managing editor of Conservative Tribune. His weekly column, “The Upper Cut,” appears each Tuesday morning. In addition to sharing it on social media, you can also connect with him on Facebook or on Twitter @georgeupper.
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