You probably haven’t thought a whole lot about ISIS in the year since the pandemic laid us flat. Not about ISIS and its many cells, not about al-Qaeda and its many arms, not about al-Shabab in Somalia nor the Taliban in Afghanistan nor Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines nor Boko Haram in Nigeria, nor any of the other fifty-plus U.N.-designated terror groups worldwide.
But they’ve been thinking about us.
Not long after the world shut down, Al-Qaeda vowed to “turn this calamity into a cause for uniting our ranks,” and proclaimed the coronavirus “divine” retribution for the West’s moral decadence.
As if they haven’t had their own share of pandemic deaths.
ISIS declared in its newsletter al Naba, “The Tidings,” that with the security services of the United States and its allies preoccupied with the virus, its faithful should plan new attacks against the West. Its benchmark battle cry? “Show no mercy.”
As if they ever did.
And as America’s longest war drags on toward no good end in Afghanistan, a Taliban commander is quoted in The New York Times saying, “Until an Islamic system is established, our jihad will continue until doomsday.”
As if Trump’s peace talks could have led to anything else.
The terror groups have not laid low in the lockdown.
Back in August, the top American commander in the Middle East warned that in western Syria, “Conditions are as bad or worse” than they were during the initial rise of ISIS. Meantime only last week, President Biden ordered rocket attacks in eastern Syria against Islamic insurgents in bed with Iran.
In December in northeastern Nigeria, ISIS wannabes from Boko Haram murdered— in some cases, beheaded— some 70 farmers for betraying the terrorists’ location to the nation’s army. Then last week in western Nigeria, either Boko Haram— or maybe scarier, Boko Haram wannabes— were back to their dirty work, kidnapping more than 300 schoolgirls and fleeing to their base in the jungle. When they’ve taken schoolgirls in the past, they have both indoctrinated them and impregnated them to grow their ranks.
All the while, Al Sayyaf militants in the Philippines, who have pledged their allegiance to ISIS, have continued to kill Filipino soldiers trying to track them.
And both Al-Shabab and ISIS-Somalia have kept up their deadly attacks against Western targets in the Horn of Africa. Now, with the last of our troops repositioned to other posts just a few days before the end of Trump’s term, there’s little left to stem that tide. It puts the terrorists in a better position to attack Western ships in the waterway which links the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean.
This all comes as no surprise.
Just as the pandemic was beginning to stop the world in its tracks, the International Crisis Group cautioned of growing dangers like these, warning that global solidarity in the war on terror was threatened, “allowing the jihadists to better prepare spectacular terrorists attacks.” If your reaction is to say, “Well, they haven’t pulled them off,” trust me when I tell you after many years covering the Middle East, they live their lives in a different time frame than we do. Our world, young as it is, is a quick-fix society. Theirs has an endowment of millennia. They can plan. They can build. They can wait.
And, they can grow. The pandemic has produced instability across the map. Instability is a breeding ground for terrorists. They have always appealed to people already on the fringe of society: the imperiled. the petrified. They hold out the promise of family, of refuge, of food. And, of power. Once in Iran when a rag-tag rebel teenager held a machine-gun to my temple, I couldn’t help but think, “This is probably the best day of his life.” Terror groups hold out the prospect of best days to sorry souls who’ve never had one. Intelligence agencies say that with even more on the fringe today than only a year ago, there are more recruits, waiting in the wings to strike.
And it doesn’t matter where. While a terrorist from the Middle East doesn’t look like a terrorist from the Philippines and a terrorist from Nigeria doesn’t look like a terrorist from Russia’s Caucasus, they have one aim in common: to rip apart the order of the status quo. Which means, one goal: anarchy.
Former President Trump talked a good game about beating the terrorists and yes, he could claim some victories. But at the same time, he created new holes in our security big enough to drive a dynamite-packed truck through. He pulled forces back from Africa where militants run wild. He withdrew troops from Afghanistan where a second-generation Taliban triumph could lead to a second-generation base for anti-American attacks. He created chasms in our strongest alliances, which might have been his biggest sin, for whatever weakens our friends, weakens us.
To his credit, as President Biden cleans up the chaos left on his doorstep, he has been able so far to walk and chew gum at the same time. But just as he already is challenging adversaries who are out to beat us, he must confront terrorists who are out to get us. The West is vulnerable. The United States must prove invincible.
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For almost five decades Greg Dobbs has been a correspondent for two television networks, a political columnist for The Denver Post, a moderator on Rocky Mountain PBS, and author of “Life in the Wrong Lane.” He has covered presidencies at home and international crises around the globe. He won three Emmys, and the Distinguished Service Award from the Society of Professional Journalists. Some of his essays also are published— with images— on BoomerCafe.com.
I'm glad you wrote this. We certainly do need to pay attention. And "going it alone" without our allies & mutual support of one another, is definitely not the way to go. Thank God President Biden is trying to repair our relationships. A truly frightening time for the world, and our country. As Dave says below, we must prepare for both internal/external terrorism threats. I - and most of our family - are Democrats, but I do think it's important to have a good, strong, principled Republican Party too. However, that sure doesn't seem the case these days except for a few good men & women who are bravely standing up to the Trump lies. I can't imagine how our grandfathers & grandmothers who fought WWII would feel about these present circumstances, especially if they were members of the GOP. May our Democracy, and our people & friends, be preserved and saved. Thank you, Greg, and thank you, Dan.
You confirm one of my greatest concerns Greg, international terrorism lives in wait and I suspect will act on their misguided idealogies sooner than we may expect. When I saw your headliner today though, I thought you were going to address internal terrorism which you have already done in previous articles. On my list of "the worst things that could happen", I have to say that internal terrorism, given permission and sanction by our previous president, ranks as high as terrorism from without. It's not an either/or, we must prepare equally for both which is extremely difficult as much of our nation's attention is on the pandemic and our economy. As I watch what has happened since January 6th, I am reminded daily that trumpism, with or without trump, is alive and well, trumpism too and it's misguided sycophant groups are an imminent threat primarily fueled by our Republican House and Senate through the likes of the usual suspects Cruz, Hawley, McConnell, McCarthy, et al. The most recent indicator being this past weekend at the CPAC when it was reported by the Guardian that Nazi SS symbolism was designed to decorate the stage, how blatant can it be that the Far Right is boldly advertising their intent, certainly not my grandfather's Republican Party. So, just saying that I think we have alot to focus on and as you so elegantly stated, Biden needs to continue to "walk and chew gum at the same time", hope our majority can last. Very concerned - Dave Dillingham