Common sense. “US home-grown terrorists ‘a global threat’, warns congresswoman,” by Duncan Gardham in the Telegraph, December 26 (thanks to David):
America’s home-grown terrorists are now a ‘global threat’ and the US should look to Europe to learn how to deal with the problem, a prominent US congresswoman has warned Barack Obama.
In a letter to the president, Sue Myrick, a member of the House of Representatives select committee on intelligence, says that America is for the first time exporting Islamist terrorism.
She accuses the US of complacency in dealing with the issue and says the country in “far behind” Europe in having measures in place to deal with the growing problem of the radicalisation of young men and their willingness to carry out terror attacks….
In her letter, Mrs Myrick writes: “For many years we lulled ourselves with the idea that radicalisation was not happening inside the United Sates.
“We believed American Muslims were immune to radicalisation because, unlike the European counterparts, they are socially and economically well-integrated into society.
“There had been warnings that these assumptions were false but we paid them no mind.” She goes on: “Today there is no doubt that radicalisation is taking place inside America. The strikingly accelerated rate of American Muslims arrested for involvement in terrorist activities since May 2009 makes this fact self-evident. What has been missed is that our home-grown terrorists are now becoming a global threat.”…
Some of those arrested over the last year, including Faizal Shazad, the Times Square bomber, “embodied the American dream, at least socio-economically,” she adds.
She said that the interpretation that social grievances are at the heart of domestic terrorism is wrong and adds: “The truth is that if grievances were the sole cause of terrorism, we would see daily acts by Americans who have lost their jobs and homes in this economic downturn.” The congresswoman said that America knows little about the ideology that drives terrorism and adds: “We are far behind our allies in Europe who have been studying extremist ideology for some time now.
“If we are truly to stem the tide of home-grown terrorism, we must follow the act of some European countries, we must move beyond addressing bombs and bullets to winning hearts and minds.” Mrs Myrick, a Republican, called on the US president to convene a bipartisan meeting on counter-radicalisation at the White House for congressional leaders to discuss the issues….
Winning hearts and minds in what way? We’ve been trying to do that for years in Iraq and Afghanistan. What do we have to show for it?