If you sail through waters studded with shoals and sharp rocks with your eyes closed you may be oblivious to the danger all around you. That does not make the threat go away. It does not change the fact that your ship is going to the bottom when you hit the rocks.
Biden and his mandarins may choose to ignore the implications of their disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. They may pretend we will not pay the price. That does not change what is happening inside Afghanistan and what will almost certainly happen here in the near future.
Prior to 9/11, Afghanistan was a safe haven for Al Qaida. It was the platform from which the 9/11 attacks were launched. It also harbored Al Qaida weapons of mass destruction programs that sought to develop biological, chemical, and even nuclear weapons.
These were dangerously close to success in 2001. Al Qaida scientists were working with anthrax. Bin Laden was meeting personally with senior Pakistani nuclear scientists.
What happened on 9/11 was never intended to be the end of anything. The dream was always to find ways to kill Americans on an even greater scale. The plan was to destroy the West.
Al Qaida never left Afghanistan, but they are now back in a very big way. They are stronger than they have been in many years, and they are increasing in strength every day.
Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri lives in Afghanistan. That is where he makes his headquarters. Before he was killed, Bin Laden was hiding in a safe house in Pakistan, limiting his communications and desperately trying to stay alive. Zawahiri moves and communicates freely.
A recent UN report details just how bad the situation is. Al Qaida is the number one terrorist group in Afghanistan.
"Al-Zawahiri's apparent increased comfort and ability to communicate has coincided with the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan and the consolidation of power of key Al Qaeda allies within their de facto administration," the report noted.
"The situation in Afghanistan remains complex, the terrorist groups based in Afghanistan view the Taliban's military success as a motivating factor for propaganda in neighboring countries and other parts of the world," the report added. Translation: Having driven the United States from Afghanistan the terrorists now have their eyes on Pakistan and what Bin Laden called “the far enemy”, the United States.
The Taliban do not just allow Al Qaida to remain in Afghanistan – they cooperate with them. "Al Qaeda leadership reportedly plays an advisory role with the Taliban, and the groups remain close," the U.N. report stated.
While Al Qaida is once again secure in Afghanistan and uses it as its base for worldwide operations, the group has dangerous affiliates around the globe. Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) which has launched numerous attacks against Western targets remains lethal. Meanwhile, Al Qaida affiliates in Africa, like Al Shabaab, are growing in strength.
This is not a group that is on the ropes or focused purely on survival. This is a group that sees itself as just having won a historic victory and is now poised to once again take the fight to the enemy where the enemy lives. We should remember that one of the core principles around which Bin Laden built Al Qaida was the idea of taking the war to the United States and its allies. It is in many ways his seminal contribution to terrorism
“Our youths believe in paradise after death.”
“My Muslim Brothers of The World:
Your brothers in Palestine and in the land of the two Holy Places are calling upon your help and asking you to take part in fighting against the enemy -your enemy and their enemy- the Americans and the Israelis.”
“The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies--civilians and military--is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy mosque from their grip, and in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam, defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim. This is in accordance with the words of Almighty God, "and fight the pagans all together as they fight you all together," and "fight them until there is no more tumult or oppression, and there prevail justice and faith in God."
Bin Laden’s Declaration of War on America
Al Qaida does not want to carve out a homeland. Al Qaida does not want the West to leave the Middle East or Central Asia. Al Qaida’s holy mission given to it by God is to destroy the West and transform the entire globe into one Islamic Emirate. You will either get on board with that project or die. It is that simple, and for them, it will always be that simple.
This is a fight to the death. We either destroy Al Qaida or allow it to destroy us not because we want it that way, but because they do. There is no compromise. There is no live and let live.
Our mortal enemy is alive and well and most certainly at this very moment making plans for attacks on the West. Unless IQs have dropped precipitously in Al Qaida in the last few years, those plans will take full advantage of the fact that we no longer have a southern border.
Red lights should be flashing in Washington. They are not or if they are they are being ignored. We are holding course, doing nothing, and waiting for people to die.
Islam delenda est.