Does Radical Islam Threaten America?

Politicians and pundits seem to believe that we have no business stationing troops in the Middle East. After all, President Obama never said that radical Islam was a threat to America and therefore, leaders on the left and the right have concluded that radical Islam is not a threat to America.

Some suggest that we need but wait until radical Islam becomes a clear and present danger to our country. And yet, as the Muslim world undergoes an overdue reformation, anyone who thinks that this will happen without violence has clearly been smoking the wrong kind of cigarettes. And anyone who thinks that the flood of Muslim refugees in Europe will not produce existential problems for our Western European allies is naive beyond imagination. 

To take a simple example, the government of Germany, led by the center right fool named Angela Merkel, has chosen to side with Iran against America. It has been hard at work trying to help Iran to overcome the burden of American sanctions. And it has refused, despite the efforts of our great ambassador, Richard Grenell, to denounce the terrorist network called Hezbollah.

The reason: the increasingly large number of Muslim voters, voters who are trying to impose their cultural values on the German nation. It’s the democracy, stupid!

Anyway, despite the protestations of politicians and pundits, the American public still sees the value in having a military presence in the Middle East. The following story comes to us from The Hill (via Maggie’s Farm):

Conducted just after the U.S. strike that killed Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani, the polls show that a majority of Americans support maintaining (45 percent) or increasing (29 percent) the U.S. military presence in the Middle East; fewer than a quarter (24 percent) say reduce. This is fairly stable with opinion in 2018. Support for specific long-term military bases in the region has also grown since last asked in 2014, with majorities now saying the U.S. should have bases in Iraq (55 percent, up from 41 percent in 2014) and Kuwait (57 percent, up from 47 percent in 2014). Nearly as many Americans back keeping bases in Afghanistan (48 percent, up from 43 percent in 2014), with support in each instance cutting across partisan lines.

The grounds are national security:

Asked which region is most important to the security interests of the United States, 61 percent of Americans name the Middle East, up from a plurality of 50 percent in 2018. No other region comes close, including Europe (15 percent), Asia (12 percent), Latin American (7 percent), and Africa (1 percent).

While woke politicians have their knickers in a twist over white supremacy, the American public considers the terrorist threat from radical Islam to be more significant:

Since 1998 when the Chicago Council first started asking about the threat from international terrorism, it has ranked as one of the highest threats. Sixty-nine percent of Americans called international terrorism a critical threat in 2019, making the fear second only to concern about cyberattacks. 

And the public seems to understand that stationing troops around the world serves as a deterrence. This comes on a day when the Trump administration has sent sending more troops to Saudi Arabia, to help deter a possible Iranian attack:

 Majorities of Americans say that maintaining U.S. military superiority (69 percent), participating in military alliances (74 percent), and stationing troops in allied countries (51 percent) make the United States safer. The fact that far fewer say that intervening militarily (27 percent) makes the United States more safe indicates that they see the U.S. military presence in the region as a way to prevent threats primarily through deterrence rather than through combat.

The Wall Street Journal has reported on the new American troops in Saudi Arabia:

Nearly 17 years after U.S. troops largely pulled up stakes from the kingdom, the U.S. is now back in force.

Here in a base of tents in the desert about 60 miles southeast of Riyadh, some 2,500 U.S. military personnel are launching F-15 fighter jets in soaring arcs overhead and manning Patriot missile batteries in shifts. Or they play chess and video games to pass the hours, with an NFL-themed video game splashed on a flat-screen TV inside a recreation tent.

The return of the U.S. troops—after maintaining a much smaller footprint for nearly two decades—reflects the alarm of Saudi and American leaders at the current threat posed by another regional power: Iran.

"We face a thinking enemy that is playing a real regional conflict for keeps, and they’re very good,” said Gen. John Walker, the commander of the 378th Air Expeditionary Wing at the base.