The consolation is, nobody will be able to say that we didn't see it coming:
As the conflict with the Islamic State (ISIS) intensifies, a small group of young Americans have been seeking to join extremist groups in the Middle East, intent on fighting against U.S. interests.
At least seven "wannabes" have been arrested in the last 15 months after trying to travel to join the militant groups, while an eighth — a former police officer from North Carolina — was arrested on an unrelated charge after unsuccessfully attempting to join ISIS in Syria, according to NBC News.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Wednesday that more than 100 Americans are fighting with Islamic State militants, the first time the Pentagon chief has put a number on U.S. citizens aiding the terrorists.
Hagel cited the Americans aiding the jihadists to illustrate the threat that the Islamic State poses to the United States.
"We are aware of over 100 U.S. citizens who have U.S. passports who are fighting in the Middle East with ISIL forces," Hagel told CNN, using the U.S. government's preferred acronym for the Islamic State. "There may be more. We don't know."
Other U.S. intelligence officials have said that as many as 300 Americans may have joined forces with the Islamic State group. They are among thousands of Westerners believed to be fighting alongside the militants.
That's how they'll get us.
Remember how the Bush Administration bent over backwards to avoid "ethnic/religious" profiling in the aftermath of 9/11 when it set up the TSA, giving us the ludicrous spectacle of little blue-haired grandmas and Aryan-looking toddlers getting exhaustive grope-downs while anybody who looked the slightest bit swarthy was waved right through security checkpoints? And if they were sporting a turban, they were beamed onto the plane? Good times, good times.
That's all still going on, of course - it will never end, or will, I suppose, when the TSA is destroyed along with the rest of the country - but now there's something to the "anybody could be a terrorist" mantra. The irony is, no matter what they look like, they'll still be Muslim.
And that's the insidiousness of the enemy we face. Go to the linked news story and read for yourself all the one-time Americans who converted to Islam for seemingly every different reason under the sun. What strikes me about all these "conversion" stories is the common thread that runs through them all: spiritual deadness. This is what happens in a "post-Christian" - or, as I prefer to call it, a de-Christianized - culture. God made man in His image, including volition - free will - and that includes the freedom to reject God. But precisely because God made man in His own image, man is still a spiritual being, and thus still has spiritual needs. And if he rejects the true God, he will seek to sate that need with something, anything else. We're a few decades into the "post-Christian" period, and how's that worked out for us? Money didn't do it; fame either. Sex, drugs, rock & roll, homosexuality, "gender transmutation," beastiality, vegesexualism....nothing. No fleshly implement or vice can fill scratch that spiritual itch.
And now along comes Islamic Fundamentalism. And what does Islamic Fundamentalism offer the "empty" Westerner? Purpose. Being part of something bigger than themselves. The superficial appearance of spirituality. And best of all, they don't have to adjust their political prejudices, because any westerner, and particularly any American, who would defect to jihadism already believes in an all-powerful state dictating everybody's lives to the tiniest detail, already detests freedom and capitalism, and already hates Christians and Jews. Heck, I'd take bets on the year by which the entire American Left has temporarily emigrated to Syria. Over/under is the end of Barack Obama's fourth term.
I don't know the minimum number of U.S. defectors ISIS needs in order to infiltrate them back over here to carry out the mass-casualty attacks that will bring us to our proverbial knees, but it's the picture-perfect way to do it because their infiltrators would be U.S. citizens. Can't treat 'em as illegal enemy combatants; can't treat 'em as enemies, period. Have to treat 'em as criminal defendants, with full (oh, the irony) full constitutional rights and due process protections and full respect for their "religious preference." Remember how the British and Australians promptly plugged that procedural hole after the identity of James Foley's decapitator was revealed? Think Barack Obama will follow suit? Me, either.
Bottom line is, nature abhors a vacuum - physically, culturally, spiritually. Drain a culture of its spiritual heritage and it will not remain empty; it will fill itself up with something else. Or, as the Apostle Paul put it:
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth [l]in unrighteousness, 19 because that which is known about God is evident [m]within them; for God made it evident to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. 21 For even though they knew God, they did not [n]honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and [o]crawling creatures.
24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. 25 For they exchanged the truth of God for [p]a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed [q]forever. Amen.
26 For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is [r]unnatural, 27 and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing [s]indecent acts and receiving in [t]their own persons the due penalty of their error.
28 And just as they did not see fit [u]to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, 30 slanderers, [v]haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; 32 and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them. [emphasis added]
Tell me that doesn't sound like America, and the planet Earth, in September 2014.
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