Walid Phares writing at The CounterTerrorism blog points out
The shooting inside a US military installation that led to the killing of many personnel compels us to ponder. Over the past few years and months authorities have stopped attempts on similar attacks. The Fort Dix Jihadi plot, dismantled in 2006, aimed at performing a killing of military personnel inside the base. Other cells, dismantled in Georgia, New York and North Carolina also had plans for attacking military installations on US soil. But more importantly a number of lone wolves have also expressed intentions to attack military personnel.
This year, a person by the name Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, 23, shot two US military at the Army-Navy Career Center in a shopping center in west Little Rock, killing one. In cyberspace Jihadi threats against US military in the homeland and against American cities has been ongoing. Information collected by authorities, including from suspects and indicted individuals has shown a pattern by the Jihadists (militants or propagandists) indicating their intentions to strike at military and security installations.
And yet, our Commander-in-Chief finds this current attack "incomprehensible".
What makes this incomprehensible? The enemy will try to win in any manner possible; on the battlefield or behind enemy lines. And make no mistake, we are their enemy.
At Forbes.com, Claudia Rosett writes:
In the media, the question of the hour is how the military could have missed the warning signs of Hasan's impending attack. Such details are important, and it would be a great idea to have better mechanisms (or any mechanisms at all?) within the military to catch the warning signs and act in time. But vigilance of that kind starts at the top. Right now the biggest warning sign of all is a president who looks at a pattern of jihadi communications, recruiting and attacks on America, and tells the public that the bloodshed at Fort Hood is "incomprehensible." Not for the first time, the system is blinking red.
The media is one thing, but signals from the White House are broadcasting that the President is floundering
A senior Administration official said the President did not plan to accept any of the options presented to him in a war council meeting yesterday. Instead he pushed for revisions to clarify how and when United States troops would turn over responsibility to the Afghan Government.
While Europe remains steadfast:
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he shared the concern of the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan about sending more troops to the country but stressed that the allies must stay the course and commit more to training Afghan forces.
"We are not in Afghanistan to protect and defend a specific government, but to make sure Afghanistan does not once again become a safe haven for terrorists who could easily spread from Afghanistan through Central Asia and further, not to mention the risk of destabilising Pakistan, a nuclear power, which would create a very dangerous situation," he said.
But what good will such sentiment be if the US gives up?
The Taliban senses confusion in our foreign policy:
"The shooting incident which was executed by the Muslim American soldier Nidal Malek Hasan, against the American soldiers at Fort Hood base in the state of Texas last Thursday, and caused the death of 13 and injury of 38 [soldiers], has caused fright and trance and enormous fears within the military and civil circles in America."
"Silence was declared in the American Congress; Obama considered the incident very confusing and very terrifying in the history of America..."
"The American army has killed tens of thousands of innocent people in two confusing wars and without directions, and lasted eight years; hundreds of thousands were injured, and other millions were displaced; away from their homes and refuges in Iraq and Afghanistan, and it also caused the death of thousands of their own soldiers and the injury of the same number whether wounds, handicap and psychological illnesses. These repeated disasters and carnage have awoken the human sympathy in the souls of the American soldier, and a question has personified itself for them: why are they, and other humans, are engaged in two wars with unclear features?"
But who is unclear? President Bush was never unclear about our goals in this war. Previous Presidents could use the word "Victory".
But not this President.
Fort Hood and all evidence that Jihadists are looking to attack our military at home and abroad makes it clear that the enemy is vibrant and will use all forces available to them in order to obtain a victory.
Will we?
