While many political observers are focusing attention on ISIS/ISIL and the other groups that ought to be lumped together generically as Islamist terrorists, Jim Geraghty of National Review Online looks at disturbing attacks taking place much closer to home.
Americans are right to be concerned about the Islamic State, al-Qaeda, and other international terrorist threats.
But in recent days, we’ve seen a sudden flurry of disturbing examples of non-terrorist Americans carrying out terrorist-style attacks against other people.
Let’s stipulate that Alton Nolen, the Oklahoma man who beheaded one of his co-workers, may be a case of “do-it-yourself jihadism” — he had no direct ties to terror groups but behaved as an ally of those groups. Nolen converted to Islam, and a prosecutor said he had “an infatuation with beheadings.”
Then there’s the strange case of Federal Aviation Administration contract worker Brian Howard, who attempted suicide, then allegedly attempted arson of an FAA control center, prompting enormous numbers of delayed flights across the country. …
… Then there’s the recent White House fence-jumper. …
… Then there’s the White House shooter of 2011 — who we learned this week was much more dangerous than the initial Secret Service reports suggested. …
… Disrupting the air-traffic-control system, shooting at the White House, invading the White House . . . al-Qaeda and the Islamic State would love to do those sorts of things. But Islamist terrorist groups are, so far, beaten to the punch by garden-variety troubled and disturbed Americans.
