Is anyone else getting sick of hearing the words, ‘getting radicalized?’ Anchors on TV and newspaper reporters (there are few journalists left) refer to former citizens as ‘domestic terrorists’ when they come back from Syria or other middle eastern countries harboring a grudge against their country of birth. This grudge was driven into their brains by trainers whose skill at fertilizing hatred is legendary and lethal. These handlers must have the tender touch of a mother’s hand, the discipline of a boot camp drill instructor, the patience of a Buddhist Monk and the intentions of a shark.
Syed Rizwan Farook, age 28 was born in Illinois and was thus a US citizen. His parents were immigrants from Pakistan who raised their son in the Sunni Muslim tradition and spoke Urdu. This tongue is spoken mostly in Pakistan and India and used by more than 100 million people of those regions. Farook was a county health inspector who lived in Redlands with his wife Tashfeen Malik. They had met when Farook attended a religious pilgrimage called the Hajj in Saudi Arabia in 2013. The couple had a six-month-old daughter, born in May 2015.
In addition to four high capacity rifle magazines, there were 65 to 75 rounds fired during the massacre. A bomb comprised of three pipe bombs was found at the ‘Inland Regional Center’ in San Bernardo, CA. but apparently its remote control device failed to work. The shootout included 76 rounds fired at officers while 1,400 – .233 caliber rounds and 200 – .9 mm rounds were discovered with suspects. The President warned us about not jumping to conclusions about the motive.
When investigators searched the Redlands home where the couple lived, 12 pipe bombs, 2,000 – .9 mm (pistol) rounds, 2,500 – .233 (rifle) rounds and hundreds of .22 caliber (long rifle) rounds were counted. It could have been workplace violence as at Fort Hood in 2009, but the FBI determined that the event was being processed as possible terrorism. We do hope that the FBI did not employ illegal racial or ethnic profiling to reach this conclusion.
Now, this terrible tragedy begs the question frequently raised by our national leaders; are we safer now than we were in 2009? The answer is multiple choice; yes, no or ‘not sure.’
These anarchists sacrificed a life of freedom to pursue the cause of at least one organization whose title begins with the word ‘Islamic’ (ISIS). This terrorist pair killed at random; innocent people that were all presumed to be infidels. To these homicidal maniacs, these people deserved death simply because they were non-Islamic. The deceased and injured are former co-workers of the suspected male miscreant. The employees that died had held a baby shower for this suspect and his wife, also a suspect.
The future of their six-month-old daughter was less important on December 2 than taking the lives of US citizens. This couple conspired to destroy a portion of a free nation because their culture, their training, their loyalty and patriotism was opposed to the existence of any nation that fails to follow the dictates of their understanding of Islam, the Quran and the Muslim culture as inculcated by ISIS and presumably other rogue Islamic groups. It seems to be clear that their motive was to play their part in destroying what was evil to their pedantic knowledge and receive absolution and other gifts upon entrance to the after-life.
What happened in San Bernardo is going to be repeated here and in many urban areas of the world as evidenced by the knife wielding terrorist in the London subway over the weekend. Many nations are preparing for attacks but their readiness may not match the timetable, location and type of assaults. The goal of ISIS, Boko Haram and other terrorist organizations seems to be to ‘kill people and break things.’ Those words accurately describe war and the currently more specific word, ‘jihad’ that means religious duty to Muslims.
In a speech from the White House on Sunday, the President finally mentioned that we are at war with ISIL and outlined a strategy. Will his onslaught match his oratory? We hope the terrorists are as scared as an enormous number of people are.