Wednesday, July 22, 2015
A deranged gunman’s deadly attack on two U.S. military facilities in Chattanooga, Tenn., last week underscores the validity of the heightened terrorism consciousness in this country.
As such, it also underscores the necessity for a thorough investigation into this particularly brazen rampage and a comprehensive review of intelligence procedures designed to lessen the threat of such seeming “lone-wolf” attacks on our homeland.
On Thursday, 24-year-old Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez sprayed dozens of bullets at a military recruiting center at a strip mall in Chattanooga, then drove to a Navy-Marine training center a few miles away and shot up the installation, killing four Marines and one Navy sailor. The bullets smashed through windows and sent service members scrambling for cover. The triggerman himself was shot and killed.
According to U.S. Attorney Bill Killian, federal officials are investigating the shooting spree as an “act of domestic terrorism.” Indeed the horrific attack conjures up images of the April 2014 shootings at the Fort Hood Army post in Texas that left three people dead and more than a dozen wounded and the 2009 attack there that killed 13 people and wounded more than 30.
It is but the latest in a series of similar troubling incidents.
Federal authorities have charged 62 people with planning attacks on the homeland on behalf of the Islamic State or trying to provide material support to the terror group over the past two years. An internal congressional document shows that federal authorities have uncovered more U.S.-based terror plots or attacks in the first half of 2015 than in any year since terrorists crashed planes into the New York City World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon in Washington, killing 3,000.
Such data clearly illustrate the need for vigilance on the part of U.S. authorities and all Americans to work assiduously to lessen the threats against our courageous military personnel and against all Americans. It also, however, underscores the necessity for patience and avoiding rash, shortsighted policies.
After all, the motives behind Abdulazeez’s attack remain cloudy. Yes, he was a convert to Islamic ideology. But authorities have not yet discovered any documented evidence of the man from a dysfunctional family showing any signs of strong allegiance to the Islamic State, al-Qaida or other affiliates in the world’s growing global terror network.
DON’T ARM RECRUITING STATIONS
As such, proposals that call for arming all military personnel at recruiting stations and other soft targets are unwarranted. Stricter security of such agencies, including patrols by local and state law- enforcement officers, may be warranted. Arming military personnel inside them is not prudent, at least not yet. Military recruiting and reserve stations are designed to be open and welcoming to the public, not off-putting and fearful symbols of a military state.
“I think we have to be careful about over-arming ourselves, and I’m not talking about where you end up attacking each other,” Gen. Ray Odierno, chief of staff of the Army, said recently. Instead, he said, it’s more about “accidental discharges and everything else that goes along with having weapons that are loaded that causes injuries.”
Before implementing any structural changes to current operating procedures that Americans may later regret, we encourage a strict and comprehensive investigation to play out.
Right now, there are far more questions than answers swirling around the Chattanooga massacre: How did Abdulazeez obtain his firearms? What motivated him to carry out the deadly rampage? Did he act alone or in alliance with ISIS or another terrorist group?
Until they are fully answered, America should not act by the seat of its pants with premature strategies that could very well undermine the very freedoms our military works so valiantly to protect.