There is a lot of talking following the massacre in Paris. There are also many, many questions, but the top two are: How could French intelligence have failed so spectacularly? How could the terrorists have kept this military precision operation under the radar?
For the past couple of years a few of us, quasi political pundits, sit together to discuss world politics. One of the items on the table was always not if the terrorists would strike again, but when. Every milestone date – 9/11, July 4, Labor day, the Thanksgiving parade in New York, etc we would say is this the day? The answer was always the same: They won’t strike when people expect it. They will strike suddenly and on soft targets. Sadly, our little political group was exactly correct. All of the targets were soft and the date chosen was a regular Friday night in Paris.
The biggest question now is what are the western democracies going to do? It has become very clear that the terrorists are not a rag-tag operation. They are sophisticated, well-armed, intelligent and very ready to die for their cause.
We are at war. It is not only a war that kills people, it is also a war of mind games. The enemy is trying to destabilize the world and doing a very good job of that. There is no doubt that the uppermost thing on everyone’s mind tonight is who and where is the next place they will decide to strike.
Until the ‘good guys’ get their act together and realize that we are fighting a world war, which means that all countries must band together to defeat the enemy, they will have the upper hand. It is time to stopping all the talking and take action. If we want to save democracy and the world as we know it there is no other choice.
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