It occurs to me that the timing of terrorist attacks - whether successful
or unsuccessful -- could easily have a significant influence on the election of
our next President.
Take, for example, the anti-Islam sentiment stirred up by Donald Trump and
other GOP candidates over the past few days. If ISIS timed an attack (or an
attempted attack) two weeks before the 2016 election, do any one of us think
that would not have an effect on the outcome?
Sure, we'd like to be able to say that we are smarter than that and above
being so easily manipulated, but take a look at the numerous voter polls
conducted in the past few days which overwhelmingly show that Americans do not
want to accept Syrian refugees. How would that polling have looked just a week
or two earlier? Recent events have an outsized influence on elections. What
happened this week carries far more weight than what happened last month or last
year.
One, single well-timed event, successful or not, could significantly alter
the course of the next election and the future course of this country. It did
after 9-11, and look how that turned out.
Does anyone really think that ISIS hasn't already thought about this?
Are we, ourselves, even thinking about it?
And what can we do to prevent the almost inevitable public reaction, should
it occur?
How do we prevent our enemy -- one who has sworn to destroy us and our way
of life -- from determining or our future?
I don't have the answers or the solutions, but I'm sure interested
in hearing yours.
