Sixteen years after Sept. 11, 71-year-old President Donald Trump’s National Security Advisor Tom Bossert says the U.S. is under no pressing terrorist threat against the homeland. Trump spent much of his 2016 campaign warning citizens about the dangers of “unvetted” Mideast immigration, promoted under former President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton . Trump’s Jan. 27 travel ban specifically targeted Mideast countries viewed as security risks in the U.S. for potential terrorism. When the San Francisco Ninth Circuit Court tossed out Trump’s Jan. 27 and revised March 15 travel bans, the federal courts disagreed with Trump’s logic that the ban protected U.S. national security. “There is no current credible actionable threat, terrorist threat, against the homeland,” said Bossert, throwing cold water on the idea that immigrants pose a clear-and-present danger.
Today’s approach to terrorism began with former President George W. Bush in wreckage of Sept. 11, where nearly 3,000 folks lost their lives with Osama bin Laden’s brazen jetliner attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Unlike former President Bill Clinton who had no coherent terrorism strategy, Bush was the first to mobilize the U.S. military to go after Islamic terrorists sheltering Bin Laden in Afghanistan. Starting Operation Enduring Freedom Oct. 7, 2001, Bush mobilized the U.S. military to attempt to find-and-destroy Bin Laden for planning-and-financing Sept. 11. Little did Bush know that Bin Laden out-smarted the Pentagon, escaping from Afghanistan in December 2001, hiding out in the mountainous region between Afghanistan and Pakistan., before Obama brought him to justice May 1, 2011.
When Obama took the reins from Bush Jan. 20, 2008, he reverted to the old pre-Setp. 11 mentality, using law enforcement and intel agencies to deal with ongoing terrorist threats. Obama’s passive approach earned him the Nobel Peace Prize Oct. 10, 2009 but not before psychiatrist U.S. Army Nidal Malek Hassan massacred 13 Army recruits Nov. 5, 2009 at Fort Hood, Texas. It took Obama weeks to acknowledge the obvious that Hassn operated a sleeper cell directed by Yemen’s chief al-Qaeda terrorist Anwar Awlaki. Making good on his campaign promise to end the Iraq War, Obama pulled U.S. troops out of Iraq Dec. 15, 2011, creating the power vacuum giving rise to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS], the terrorist group that eventually replaced all-Qaeda as the world most dangerous terror threat on the planet. When the Tsarnev brothers hit the Boston Marathon April 15, 2013, Obama’s terrorism policy backfired.
Obama rode high on the glory of getting Osama Bin Laden May 1, 2011, something Bush couldn’t do on his watch. While al-Qaeda went on the wane, ISIS swept Iraq and Syria in 2014, seizing some 30% of sovereign territory. Still battling ISIS in Raqqa, Syria and fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, U.S. terrorism strategy continues to go after terrorists with the U.S. military. Sixteen years after Operation Enduring Freedom toppled the Taliban in Kabul, Afghanistan Nov. 12, 2001, the Taliban continues to suicide bomb Afghanistan’s government headed by President Ashraf Ghani. Sixteen years after Sept. 11, Trump decided Aug. 22 to add another 4,000 U.S. troops to the already 8,400 in Afghanistan. Unable to stop a relentless Taliban insurgency, the Pentagon urged Trump to add more troops to help neutralize the Taliban and eventually win the war.
Battling ISIS terrorists in Raqqa, Syria, Trump showed his commitment to continue the Bush doctrine, fighting terrorists on the battlefield. “No terrorist should view us as vulnerable right now—furthest thing from the truth,” said Bossert at his daily press briefing. Battling ISIS in Raqqa assures a more favorable response to global terror, keeping terrorists on the run. Marking the 16th anniversary of Sept. 11, Trump’s commitment to defeating ISIS on the battlefield shows he wants to keep terrorists off U.S. streets. No more June 12, 2016 Pulse nightclub massacres, causing 50 deaths, 58 more life threatening injuries. Trump’s terrorist doctrine mirrors Bush, using the military to go after terrorists in the war-ravaged Middle East.. Ousting ISIS from Mosul, Iraq July 8 and soon from Raqqa, Syria will do more to neutralize global terrorism than talking about it.
Sixteen years after Sept. 11, the U.S. has resumed under Trump an aggressive approach to global terrorism, rejecting the Obama policy. Trump looks to defeat ISIS on the battlefield, not wait until the next terror cell erupts on U.S. soil, something bound to happen again. “President Trump will, as presidents before him since 9/11, receive a comprehensive picture of the terrorist threat environment and what we’re doing to counter it, from his senior officials,” said Bossert, referring to activities planned on Sept. 11, 2017. Battling ISIS on the battlefield with help of the Kurd’s YPG Peshmerga fighters offers the best way to keep terrorist out of the U.S. When you consider the horrific ISIS attacks in France and Great Britain over the last few years, Trump has redoubled U.S. efforts to defeat ISIS, reducing chances that ISIIS has the resources and clout to strike the U.S. homeland.
