Terror Attacks Highlight that Border Security is National Security
As I write this, the FBI is still gathering information regarding the likely ISIS-inspired New Year’s Day terror attack in New Orleans. The individual, with an ISIS flag in his vehicle, crashed his truck into pedestrians, causing multiple fatalities. He has been identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, an American citizen and Army veteran who has obviously been radicalized as his social media posts indicate. Of great concern is that authorities also found weapons and Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) in the vehicle itself, as well as in other places in the French Quarter.
All of this is to say nothing of the Tesla cyber truck that exploded outside of the Las Vegas Trump Hotel, which left one dead and seven injured. It appears that a highly decorated Army soldier and Green Beret, Matthew Livelsberger, drove the cyber truck that exploded outside the Trump property. Livelsberger apparently shot himself in the head just prior to detonation. Evidence suggests that Livelsberger likely was suffering from combat induced PTSD and may have planned a more damaging attack, but the steel-sided vehicle contained much of the force from the explosive device.
What is going on?
As The Wall Street Journal has stated, “a particular concern is the porous U.S. border with Mexico and we know people on the U.S. terror watch list have entered the U.S. during the Biden Administration. What about others we don’t know about?” (WSJ, Jan 2, 2025). It is gripping to begin the new year with the thought that the U.S. could be on the front end of a new wave of domestic terror. To that point, WSJ further suggests “another lesson is that it’s still vital to stay on offense against jihadist groups abroad, lest they be able to establish sanctuaries from which they can plan attacks on the West as they did on 9/11.” (ID.)
I have written before about the great danger generally of the illegal invasion of our southern and, increasingly, northern, U.S. borders, to include illegals of the very worst kind—including murderers and rapists and the daily harm they do—child and human traffickers, and mountains of drugs including fentanyl that kills Americans daily. But this is terrorism.
No nation is or can consider itself a sovereign if it doesn’t know who is coming over its borders into its country. How can we not know who is in our country?
FBI Director Christopher Wray (who I am delighted to see leaving and being replaced by nominee Kash Patel) has stated that his agency has been on high alert since the Oct 7th massacre in Israel, and he would be “hard pressed to think of a time where so many threats to our public safety and national security were so elevated all at once.”
What conclusions can we draw?
Well, the first is that ISIS is back. Another conclusion is that President Biden’s humiliating withdrawal from Afghanistan not only left approximately $86 billion of American military equipment in the hands of the Taliban—and 13 dead American service members—but the most dangerous and damaging effect of this disaster was America appearing weak and indecisive.
Further, as James Carafano has recently stated “Beijing, Tehran, and Moscow know that Trump is going to take his heavy hand off the Bible in a few weeks and lay a meaty fist on them. They will be scrambling for underhanded ways to push back. Terrorism will be one of them. In fact, they are already doing this. Russia contracted for terrorist attacks in Germany. China dumped Israel on October 7. Iran has put out hit contracts on Americans.” (Carafano, Fox News, January 2, 2025).
Our enemies are no less committed to damaging America than they have ever been. Perhaps President Trump will revive the Bush Preemption Doctrine articulated after 9-11 when President George W. Bush stated that America is not going to wait to be attacked—that if there is reliable intelligence of an imminent attack on our country, America will strike first. The key is having a strong president who will enable his government to prevent such attacks in the first place and then move with overwhelming force to crush an enemy when an attack is made. We have one now.
America must only survive a few more days, until noon on January 20th, 2025. Then our government will finally make America strong, powerful, safe, and first again.
