On March 1, there was a mass shooting outside a bar in Austin, Texas, that killed three and injured more than half a dozen. It’s being investigated as an act of terrorism – the shooter’s clothing was emblazoned with “Property of Allah” and an Iranian flag.
On March 7, Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi allegedly tried to detonate two bombs targeting protesters outside Gracie Mansion, the New York City mayor’s residence. “These men allegedly sought to inflict mass casualties in service to ISIS with the hope of exceeding the carnage of the Boston Marathon bombing,” said Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. (Media outlets initially blamed the protesters themselves for the bombs.)
On March 12, a shooter opened fire at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., killing one and injuring two. The FBI is investigating the shooting as an act of terrorism. The assailant was yelling “Allahu Akbar” while firing at students.
That same day, an armed driver rammed his pickup truck into a synagogue in West Bloomfield, Mich., setting the building on fire. There were 140 children attending preschool at the time. No one was injured. The diver’s brother was a Hezbollah commander. So, yeah, terrorism.
And the threat is growing in the wake of the U.S. attacks on Iran, Cynthia Miller-Idriss, head of American University’s Polarization and Extremism Research & Innovation Lab, told CNN.
That there were only four deaths as a result of these four attacks is something of a miracle. Had those bombs gone off or the driver been more successful, there could have been dozens more casualties.
And the difference between the ICE-involved deaths and these is profound. The two killed in Minnesota had put themselves in danger by actively interfering with federal law enforcement officials who were trying to deport illegal aliens.
The four killed this month by Islamic terrorists were simply living their lives.
Is the DHS shutdown to blame for these attacks? Maybe not directly. But as Stacey Matthews notes on Legal Insurrection, “These dangerous political games are having the net effect of emboldening Islam/ISIS-inspired terrorists to hurt and kill people in the United States. The longer the Democrats’ Resistance antics keep up, the stronger the likelihood that we’re going to see more attacks.”
Democrats don’t seem to care that innocent American lives are at stake. As Hawaii’s Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz put it, Democrats “are very serene with what is going on.”
— Written by the I&I Editorial Board
I & I Editorial Board
The Issues and Insights Editorial Board has decades of experience in journalism, commentary and public policy.