The New Definition of War

The Boston bombings have awakened a new reality in America. Just as the casual glance in the sky at an airplane or a skyscraper was forever altered by 9/11, an outdoor sporting event or gathering has been altered by the Boston bombings.

The real new awakening, however, if American liberties are to prevail and Americans are to survive, needs to be a new criminal and constitutional standard to deal with terrorists engaged in the new, modern-day definition of war. There is such a war that is now menacing the American homeland: Jihad, a “holy war.”

The prevailing thought has been that terrorism is only an “act of war” if attached to a foreign country or foreigner. However, after the Boston bombings a new precedent has been established, as it should have been after Fort Hood. Yet is seems as if the Obama administration and many Americans, in defense of political correctness, want to deny the new rules of engagement.

The new definition of war is not whether or not it is attached to a foreign country or aliens from a foreign country. The new definition of war is in the name of radical Islamic Jihad. This type of war is not simply defined by foreign countries or by foreigners; it is defined by anyone who engages in evil acts of terror, death, and destruction in the name of Jihad’s ideological fanaticism.

The Boston bombings were not an act of a wayward, confused, misinterpreted cowboy, bomb-building, pot-smoking, naturalized American from Chechnya. The murders in Boston were an act of war carried out by Jihad’s soldiers. It was an act of Jihad. Coming to terms with this new definition of war as a “holy war” by the radical Jihadists — who use religion as a cover for their vengeance — and the acceptance that their soldiers, whether American citizens or foreigners, are enemy combatants are an absolute must if America is to endure and remain safe.

The Jihadist movement has come to our shores. The enemy is in the field, and the movement that was once confined to radical foreigners has now elicited our vulnerable American youth to perpetrate their war, be their “troops,” and both carry and shield their evil. There is a reason they are doing this.

The radical Jihadists know America’s innate goodness, inclusiveness, and our structure of government better than most Americans do, especially the rising generations. They intend to use our own Constitution and rules of law to riddle our society with death and destruction. They want their network and plots to elude detection by hiding behind Miranda rights. American citizen soldiers are their best assets.

We are at war with radical Islamists, and these recent terror attacks — including the failed underwear bomber and the Times Square bomber, and the successful Fort Hood and Benghazi attacks — are acts of war. The Boston bombings were an act of war. It was an act of Jihad, a holy war self-proclaimed by the alleged perpetrators themselves.

Timothy McVeigh’s terrorist attack in Oklahoma City had no radical Jihad “holy war” connections, thus he was correctly tried as an American citizen. The Boston bombings were an act of terror for the sake of a “holy war” waged on behalf of Islam as a religious duty to kill infidels. The soldiers of such a “war” are enemy combatants whether American citizens or not.

Obama adviser David Axelrod was quick to state that perhaps the Boston bombings occurred because it was “tax day.” This is an insult to Americans. It appears that there is an attempt by the Obama administration to deny the reality of Jihad on our shores, within our borders. The reluctance to tell Americans the truth is a dangerous game played at the expense of American lives. With every Fort Hood denial, Benghazi denial, Boston bombing denial of a Jihadist “holy war” is a gleeful snicker from our enemy and an emboldened foe.

Currently, the jihadists are beating us at our own game. We are being outsmarted. Our enemies are relying on the Obama’s administration’s remarkably stubborn lack of faith in its people. The Obama administration seems to think that Americans are not capable of both handling the truth and remaining vigilantly unbiased. Yet the collective American common sense knows the difference between a peaceful Muslim religion and its people and radical Jihadists and its soldiers, foreign and domestic. Americans also know a war when they see one.

The United States military oath: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” The initial oath in 1789 under President George Washington declared that the military was to defend the Constitution as well as to “solemnly swear or affirm (as the case may be) to bear true allegiance to the United States of America, and to serve them honestly and faithfully, against all their enemies or opposers whatsoever …. ”

Hence anyone, a foreigner or a domestic citizen, who engages in a Jihadist “holy war” to kill infidels as a religious duty is an enemy combatant.

An attack on the American people in the name of Jihad is an attack on America.

America’s survival depends on the wisdom and wise decisions that permeated her founding. The new reality is that Jihadists are now wrangling Americans to be their soldiers because they believe their American shield to be foolproof — the American citizen Jihadist protected by the United States Constitution. Now it is time for America to call upon its innate wisdom. It is time to define a new criminal and Constitutional standard to deal with American citizen terrorists engaged in Jihad. It is time for the rules of engagement to change.