Lessons and Thoughts on the Paris Terrorist Attack

Never underestimate the capabilities of your enemies. Box cutters brought down the World Trade Center. Never underestimate the ferocity of religious warriors. The Ottoman Empire was built on Islam Never forget who your enemy is War is war Justice is not war Cities such as Paris, London, and New York present a seemingly infinite number of soft targets. You cannot safeguard every restaurant, bar, street, or other soft target. Security checks can minimize the risk to arenas, coliseums, stadiums, and critical facilities Thus three suicide bombers blew themselves up outside the Stade de France, one after a security guard denied him admission Terrorism is a global threat. Radical Islam has attacked nightclubs (Bali in 2002), hotels (Bali 2005 and Jakarta 2009), schools (Beslan 2004), and subways in London (2005) and Moscow (2010), shot up trains in Mumbai (2006) and Madrid (2004), blew up ferries (Manila 2004), kidnapped women in Nigeria (2014), and mounted coordinated attacks in Mumbai (2008) and now Paris. President Obama is still clueless. Yesterday morning, after ISIS blew up a Russian airline, and suicide bombers just wrecking havoc in Beirut and Baghdad, but before the Paris terrorist attacks, he said ISIS has been contained, “which is our goal.” He earlier said our goal was to defeat ISIS. He earlier called ISIS the junior varsity. President Obama is still clueless; he just doesn’t get it We have to grieve, empathize with the victims, and express ourselves, but always remember words of outrage will not defeat ISIS The keys to defeating terrorism are to destroy it at the source, combined with great domestic and international intelligence, and sometimes luck Asymmetrical warfare cannot be defeated by the traditional rules of war Democracy will sometimes have to give up some rights of freedom to combat terrorism ISIS will again strike the West The United States is at risk There should be no doubt about what ISIS will do to Israel if it gets the chance A backlash will grow against Islam and Muslim refugees in Europe, hopefully expressed only at the ballot box