Will Islamic Terrorism Swing the Election to Trump?

This article first appeared in Eagle Rising.


On Monday, Donald Trump gave a speech in Estero, Florida that focused on the latest terrorist attacks in New York, New Jersey and Minnesota. He used it to give a blistering indictment of President Obama and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton for their feckless handling of the Middle East and Islamic terrorism in general-which they are unable or unwilling to even name.

As usual, the Clinton-Obama conglomeration (for lack of a better word) came out with their typically vanilla response to the above terrorist attacks. White House spokesman Josh Earnest came out with yet another boffo explanation that we are in a "war of narratives with ISIS". Clinton stated on Sunday that it would be wise not to speak out before all the facts were in (I am paraphrasing.) and that we needed to "steel our resolve" whatever that means. Then on Monday she stated that  Trump's rhetoric was giving aid and comfort to the enemy, a form of treason, no less.

“Donald Trump is being used as a recruiting sergeant for ISIS,” Clinton said on Monday morning. “The kind of language and rhetoric Trump has used is giving aid and comfort to our adversaries.”

Yes, Hillary. All these atrocities are happening because of Trump's rhetoric.

There is no doubt that Trump is going to at least give us a feel for how he is going to battle Islamic terror. He already has given us some in his references to limiting Muslim immigration. Now that he has "modified" it by talking about "extreme vetting", Clinton has jumped on the bandwagon saying that she has always supported enhanced vetting-this as she actively supports a dramatic increase in Syrian refugees-over five times as many as Obama's 10,000. Trump, for his part, while not telegraphing our moves to the enemy, needs to let us know something about his military intentions. My sense is that he will try to bring NATO and our Arab allies together into a fighting force that will go into Syria, Iraq and Libya to destroy the ISIS army in the air and on the ground. That done, it is up to the West to take whatever steps we can to keep ISIS terrorists out of our lands. It goes without saying that our immigration policies must be drastically revised. (In Europe, it may be too late.)

I truly think that the majority of the American people-while not wanting to massively violate the rights of American Muslims-are not happy with our government's responses to Islamic terror-ever more so as we are attacked on our own soil. Hillary Clinton plainly promises more of the same if elected. They know that Islamic terrorists are at war with us and intend to carry out that war on our own streets. While not painting all Muslims with the same brush, it is clear to all that terrorists are walking among us. We know that future attacks are being planned as we speak.

By various estimates, the current Muslim population in the US is around 1%. That amounts to a few million people, who are immigrants, naturalized American citizens, or younger people actually born here. Forget about mass roundups, deportations or internments. We can adopt a zero-tolerance policy for non-citizens who violate our laws and kick them out, but by and large, it will be up to law enforcement and the courts to remove the terrorists and plotters from our midst. In the meantime, that 1%  must not be allowed to grow. If we are having these problems at 1%, what do you think it will be like at 5% or 10% or higher? Far beyond a religion, this is a political ideology that is incompatible with our constitution-a belief system, if you will. We once kept communists from entering the US based on their belief system, which would have subverted our democracy.  We need to find a way to do it again-if for no other reason than to protect our citizens from harm. Trump wants to find a way to accomplish that.

If Trump handles this issue sensibly, it can be a winner for him. Without castigating an entire community, all he has to do is talk about Hillary's failures and reluctance to go beyond what she and Obama have already done (or not done) in responding to Islamic terror-which they won't even name. However, he also has to convince us he has a concrete plan to destroy ISIS and protect the American people.