Just a day before the 78th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack, the entire nation was quickly reminded about how focusing on old grievances can make us forget about present threats. At a storied naval base in Pensacola, Florida, a Saudi air force officer went on a shooting rampage. Though federal authorities have yet to declare it terrorism, we all know the truth: this is just another example of Islamist terror attacks.
Why can’t we just call a spade a spade? From every piece of evidence that investigators uncover, the signs point to terrorism. For instance, the (very liberal) New York Times reported that prior to the shooting, the Saudi officer showed videos of mass shootings at a dinner party. Furthermore, the Times reported that three Saudi nationals were at the base filming the actual shooting.
Again, while federal law enforcement agencies have not declared this terrorism, at least some prominent people aren’t waiting around. For instance, Senator Rick Scott has called for an end to U.S.-Saudi military training initiatives. That’s how this terrorist gained access to the base to carry out his jihad.
And yes, this was very much a jihad. Twitter apparently banned Fox And Friends host Pete Hegseth for posting the terrorist’s anti-American manifesto. Fortunately for investigators and the skeptical, he didn’t leave behind much ambiguity regarding his motivations.
The liberal media can play dumb all they want. Unless we get serious about Islamist terror attacks, we will continue to unnecessarily lose innocent lives.
Ignorance Facilitates Terror Attacks
In all honesty, the lack of firm resolve against the perpetrators of this terrorist attack – Saudi Arabia – is revolting. No one is calling for an extreme solution. Rather, a measure like Scott’s proposal to end U.S.-Saudi military training exercises is incredibly reasonable.
A major reason why these terror attacks continue to occur is that we don’t hold anyone responsible. For instance, we never held Saudi Arabia accountable for the September 11 attack. Instead, we bombed the hell out of Iraq, even though they never had weapons of mass destruction.
Along the way, we razed Afghanistan and Libya. Never once did it apparently occur to Washington that these countries I mentioned didn’t have the resources to wage international terror attacks. But Saudi Arabia is swimming in oil money. They have sponsored terrorism, along with the ideology to radicalize young Muslims for a stupid cause.
Unfortunately, Senator Scott is one of few politicians with a brain. By limiting access to potential radicals, we limit their capabilities to wage terror. But by granting access – like joint military exercises – we open ourselves up to constant attacks.
If we want to stop the next terrorist incident, we must call a spade a spade. Otherwise, what happened in Pensacola will happen again, sooner or later.