LISTEN UP, AMERICA! THESE ARE YOUR ENEMIES! THEY WOULD LIKE NOTHING BETTER THAN TO SLAUGHTER YOU AND BRING YOU PAIN!

ISIS "Caliph" Abu-Bakr Baghdadi

Despite warnings from high-level American officials, the United States does not appear to be taking seriously looming attacks on the homeland from Islamic extremists.  Lt. General Vincent Stewart, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency,  testified recently before a Congressional committee that Americans could expect more violent incidents inspired by Islamists in coming days.  Stewart's words were supported by CIA Director John Brennan, who noted that besides 20,000 ISIS fighters in Iraq and Syria, there were thousands more in Libya, Egypt and Nigeria.  Furthermore, Brennan asserted that it would defy logic to claim that ISIS operatives were not infiltrating the thousands of refugees seeking "asylum" in Europe.  Anticipating increased Western military efforts against ISIS, FBI Director James Comey predicted a "terrorist diaspora" from the ISIS caliphate that would bring more terrorists to America's shores.

With notoriously short attention spans, many Americans have probably forgotten all about the massacre in Paris at the Bactaclan Concert Hall during November 13/14 of last year, when 130 concert-goers were viciously slaughtered.  French authorities, however, withheld complete details of the atrocity, which surfaced in a French government committee last March, when law enforcement personnel testified of their grisly discoveries at Bactaclan, after the terrorists were overpowered and crushed. Those details finally were finally made public this week.

ISIS Partisans Joyfully Perform the Work of Allah

No, dear readers, in making my point, I shall not spare you the sordid details that caused a seasoned gendarme to cry to God and vomit out his own guts when he saw the sordid results of activities in an improvised torture chamber on the 2nd floor of the Bactaclan Theatre.  There, in significant numbers, were eviscerated and beheaded bodies, with most showing the garish results of genital mutilation on both male and female corpses.  There was evidence, too, that the perpetrators had filmed their barbarities, with the intent of proudly forwarding the video records to ISIS headquarters.

And just what are we up to in America?  Well, Washington blithely moves along, despite objections from several of the states, eagerly anticipating the arrival of 10,000 Syrian refugees by the end of the summer. But that number is not at all adequate for Mrs. Clinton, who is campaigning for a grand total of 65,000!  And, at the same time, our borders remain attractive crossing points for any all who might wish us ill.

In the name of all that is right and reasonable, dear readers, whatever happened to common sense?  Is it not at all apparent that, at least since 2001, the Western world has been involved in a war for survival?  Will we win this war by ignoring it and announcing to the world that it can be won by diplomacy?  Why would sane people ridicule those who assert that we should be cautious about individuals in our midst who profess their faith in Shariah law?    By our defiance of logic, are we not sowing the seeds of our own destruction?  Was Pogo on the mark with his words, "We have met the enemy, and he is us?" Would that the answers to these questions not be so painful to consider at this stage of our history.

May God protect our Republic!

Deo Vindice!

John B., the author of this article, is a retired provost, instructor and dean in higher education, who lives in Brownsville, Texas, and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, where he lectures on Mexican history, culture and politics. More information about John and his role as an international lecturer may be found on his website:  www.johnbarham.com  Six years of John' s career were spent in the Middle East.