I fear for our future.
We are at war, under attack, but we cannot seem to figure out who our enemies are.
Since the beginning of these United States of America, we have trained soldiers to fight for the country, swearing them in by making them vow to defend the Constitution “against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”
But somewhere along the line, we decided military personnel here in the United States shouldn’t have loaded weapons — making them sitting ducks for someone like Muhammed Youssef Abdulazeez, who killed four marines and a sailor last week in Tennessee.
Members of IS, ISIL, ISIS — call them what you will — have been exhorting stateside followers to jump into jihad and start killing military people here at home. Yet we leave the doors open to any armed foe bent on murder and terror.
I admit I have mixed feelings. Since 9/11, we have repeatedly been told that our enemy is not the Muslim. I have tried to believe that, but doing so is difficult when there is no evidence that most terrorism since has been committed, not by Presbyterians or Hindus but Muslims.
I’ve read a minimal bit of the Koran and it didn’t take many pages to get to parts that instruct faithful Muslims to kill infidels who do not convert to Islam. That tenet, I understand, has been part of the faith since it started.
So I try not to hold a grudge against Islam, the religion. I do not hold all Muslims at fault for terrorism. But Islam? That seems to be another story.
I guess everyone has a different opinion.
The trouble is, we’re engaged in a fight for our lives and our enemy is this blurry, ill-defined specter — you may think he’s one person, I may think he’s someone else. How do we win, how do we survive, how do we prevail over such confusingly phantom opponents?
State-sponsored terrorism. Domestic terrorism. Lone-wolf terrorism. Is any of that different from street crime?
And how do we protect ourselves and our families?
How do we win a war like this?