Our Nobel Peace Prize Winner: Emboldening Terrorists Around the Globe

When Barack Obama first became the U.S. president, many of his supporters honestly believed that he was going to be “the one” to usher in world peace once and for all. So much so– that he even won the Nobel Peace Prize for simple aspirations, rather than an actual achievement.

As for Islamic terrorists, President Obama was simply going to sit down with them, have a nice little “chit chat,” and they were miraculously going to start loving America. It was going to be wonderful. At last, we were all going to have sleepovers, roast marshmallows and sing ‘Kumbaya’ at the campfire.  And al Qaeda? Well, those silly little stinkers were “on the run,” as the president promised during his 2012 re-election campaign.

However, that annoying thing called ‘REALITY’ destroyed the Left’s utopian fantasy even before President Obama’s second term began. As Canada Free Press recently stated, “One of the principal narratives of the 2012 Obama re-election campaign—as in al Qaeda has been “decimated” and put on a “on the path to defeat”—has itself been decimated”.

Just days after President Obama boasted of al Qaeda being “on its heels” at the 2012 Democratic National Convention, all hell broke loose in Benghazi when the U.S. consulate was attacked by al Qaeda affiliates, killing four Americans.  There weren’t enough filmmaker scapegoats to cover-up the fact that terrorism played a key role in that horrific attack that also killed our Ambassador Chris Stevens.  Come to recently realize, al Qaeda is not even “on the run” at all, but actually gaining strength in many regions of the Middle East and North Africa.

Unfortunately for us, al Qaeda is not the only terrorist organization that’s been increasing in strength and size.  In fact, several terrorist organizations are gaining vast footholds all around the globe.

As former U.S. Ambassador, John Bolton described, “Obama’s blindness to reality and his unwillingness to retaliate have afforded al-Qaida and other Islamic radicals renewed confidence. They see a weak president who pays scant attention to all-too-real dangers while overseeing massive reductions in U.S. defense capabilities.”

Canada Free Press also reports:

“According to a study released yesterday by the RAND Corporation, there has been a 58 percent increase in the number of jihadist groups over the last four years.

Even more troubling, the number of jihadist fighters has doubled, and the number of worldwide attacks has tripled. The report further notes that terrorist groups operating in Yemen, Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan pose the greatest threat to the United States.”

Seth G. Jones, author of the study and associate director of the International Security and Defense Policy Center at RAND also stated, “Based on these threats, the United States cannot afford to withdraw or remain disengaged from key parts of North Africa, the Middle East and South Asia.”

Jones adds, “After more than a decade of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, it may be tempting for the U.S. to turn its attention elsewhere and scale back on counterterrorism efforts. But this research indicates that the struggle is far from over.”

As Canada Free Press explains:

“Jones’s analysis pokes a giant hole in the leftist ideology that posits America’s forays into Iraq and Afghanistan caused an increase in jihadist activity. In fact it is quite the opposite. As America has retreated from the Middle East—completely from Iraq in December of 2011, combined with a highly-publicized schedule of winding down combat operations in Afghanistan at the end of this year—terrorism is surging.

According to Jones the epicenter of that surge is Syria. The ongoing civil war there has produced the largest increases in both the number of groups and the number of terrorists, and they now comprise more than half the number of groups worldwide who are al Qaeda sympathizers. “It’s become a breeding ground for jihadist activity,” he explains. He also notes there were substantial gains in North Africa in general, and Libya in particular.”

Sadly, we have also set a new precedent of negotiating with such terrorists (when the administration agreed to exchange five Taliban commanders from Guantanamo Bay for the U.S. “POW” Sgt. Bergdahl). Now, organizations (like the Taliban) have not only become emboldened by the U.S.’s weak leadership, they are changing their strategy which will likely put more Americans in jeopardy abroad.

In fact, according to Time, the Taliban commander close to the negotiations over the release of U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl stated “the deal made to secure Bergdahl’s release has made it more appealing for fighters to capture American soldiers and other high-value targets.”

Sadly, the Bergdahl deal was just one example of a broader policy where the Obama administration is undermining our national security interests in favor a more flaccid United States. So, it is no wonder Islamic terrorists are all beating their chests at this point.

Meanwhile, we now have five more Taliban terrorists (from Guantanamo) running free and likely already contributing to our demise.