Protecting our homefront must be first priority

Editorial by Wilmington Star-News, November 17, 2015.

On a day President Obama admitted the terrorist attacks in Paris represented a “sickening setback” in America’s battle against the Islamic State, a video was released of an Islamic State fighter in Iraq vowing a similar attack in Washington.

Such is the nature of terror. Such is the nature of warfare today. And make no mistake, this is warfare, but without clearly defined battlegrounds, and with an enemy that is not easy to spot from a distance. Indeed, war might be waged anywhere at any time and against someone we might have seen in the neighborhood grocery store once. It’s a different yet similar experience for U.S. foreign policy experts and military forces. We’ve been here before.

Where to go and whom to fight? It was a question raised by the al-Qaida threat after 9/11. It’s an even more slippery concern now.

The shadowy Islamic State forces have become a deadly thorn for months in Middle East nations — especially Iraq and Syria. On Friday, the organization took its fight into Europe. At least 129 people were killed in Paris in a well-coordinated attack on six locations throughout the city, including a concert hall and stadium. It is believed there were three teams of terrorists. Authorities on said they believed more than 20 IS suspects were involved, Seven were killed on the day of the attacks, and French officials have doggedly attempted to track down the rest. Meanwhile, France retaliated with airstrikes on IS strongholds in Syria.

French President Francois Hollande initiated tough talk and action almost immediately, declaring his nation is at war with the Islamic State. Hollande says he wants to bring the United States and Russia together in a grand coalition dedicated to smashing the Islamic State group.

He is not mistaken. It will take a global effort to smother the Islamic State and its insidious plan to smite Western nations by any barbaric means possible. The nearly 12-minute video released Monday makes this clear. It shows IS fighters calling on Muslims in France to “ignite and kill soldiers and tyrants.” One calls on strikes in the United States because America is targeting IS in Iraq. As “we struck France on its ground in Paris; we will strike America on its ground in Washington,” one says.

Where to take the fight is the biggest question. While critics and some running for president say it’s time for U.S. ground forces, military advisers think differently. Where exactly ground forces would go and how long they might be there are two critical questions. Our post-9/11 dive into Iraq is instructive. A U.S. military investment of troops fighting the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq could be a protracted endeavor with no clear victory when all is said and done.

And when the troops were to leave, there’s no reason to think the Islamic State forces would not come back.

Meanwhile, thousands of refugees from Syria are streaming into Europe and other nations. Islamic State members appear to have infiltrated these refugee groups as a means of gaining access to Western countries.

On Monday, North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory asked the federal government not to send refugees here. He joined a chorus of governors from other states doing the same. We don’t blame them. It’s tough to be a humanitarian in these treacherous times. The refugee entry to the United States needs to stop -- at least for now.

Where to proceed is a sticky question. It’s imperative, however, that America protect its borders and ramp up our homeland security. Maintaining safety here at home is the most significant challenge while a global consortium of nations, including our own, handles the Islamic State and its many tentacles.

If 9/11 was America’s wake-up call, then the Paris attacks serve as the ringing of a snooze alarm. It’s time for our nation to be alert once again, perhaps forever.

-- With contributions from Gatehouse Media

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