ISIS: Istanbul Shooter was “Hero Soldier of the Caliphate”

by Andrew January 2, 2017, 8:19 pm 112 Comments

The Islamic State claimed responsibility Monday for the brutal Istanbul terrorist attack that resulted in the death of at least 39 people on New Years’ Day. The shooter, they said, was one of their own.

The attack on the Reina Nightclub, the statement said, was “in continuation of the blessed operations that the Islamic State is conducting against Turkey, the protector of the cross.”

They reported that “a hero soldier of the caliphate attacked one of the most famous nightclubs, where Christians celebrated their pagan holiday. They used hand grenades and a machine gun and transformed their celebration to mourning.”

ISIS warned that Turkey’s involvement in the Syrian civil war would invite further attacks.

“The government of Turkey should know that the blood of Muslims, which it is targeting with its planes and its guns, will cause a fire in its home by God’s will,” the group wrote.

While ISIS is trying to get Turkey out of Syria, the country’s current problems with terrorism have less to do with the civil war and more to do with how they enabled jihadists for years. While the Arab Spring was heating up across the border, the Turkish government pretended not to notice as Islamic State fighters built support networks inside their country. The Erdogan regime’s current attitude towards ISIS is a relatively new one.

Hopefully, that attitude remains strong because we will never defeat Islamic terrorism through appeasement. This is a global sickness that must be eradicated from the planet. With Donald Trump taking over as the U.S. commander in chief, we must re-ignite the true war on terror and finish the job that Obama didn’t have the guts to take seriously. In that fight, we’ll need all the tough allies we can get.

For too long, the Obama administration has treated ISIS as something we can slowly defeat over the coming years and perhaps even decades. No need to rush. Everything will turn out all right if we just exercise patience.

But every day that ISIS continues to exist is another day in which free people all over the world are in mortal danger. If there was another 9/11-sized attack tomorrow, the Islamic State would be history by the end of the week. Do you doubt it? So why must we wait for a disaster of that magnitude before we do what needs to be done?

The United States and its allies have the capability to turn ISIS into so much dust and blood. The time to make it happen is now.