While exact ties between ISIS and Nice, France attacker Mohamed Bouhlel still need to be investigated, ISIS did claim on Saturday that Bouhlel was a “soldier” of their group. Bouhlel was not known to French intelligence agencies, but, nevertheless, was the man who drove his truck at high speed into a crowd gathered to enjoy a French holiday; he killed 84 and injured more than 200, including a vacationing father and son from Texas.
The attack in France is the latest in a string of worldwide attacks, including US attacks like the one in Orlando. Many Americans are growing tired of President Obama’s lack of strategy against the growing global threat that is ISIS. Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke is a frequent guest on Fox News and is a very outspoken opponent of President Obama. Appearing on Fox News over the weekend Clarke had this to say about the latest attack: “I’m through trying to understand the sick ideology of Islamism. Instead of trying to understand it, we ought to just try to kill it.” Clarke continued by saying, “Once again, President Obama came out yesterday and started lecturing us about Islam and Muslims.” Sheriff Clarke pointed out that just because Islamism is called out, it does not mean that Americans are criticizing all Muslims. “There’s no clear, coherent strategy either at the federal or the local level to do anything about this, to destroy this ideology,” Clarke said.
Obama has consistently rejected the term “radical Islam” and even lectured the American public about it on June 14. In that speech, Obama assured the country that the Islamic State (IS) is being driven back in both Iraq and Syria, and has had his press secretary bragging about the country being safer than it was eight years ago, despite the Orlando shootings the month before.
Meanwhile, French President Francois Hollande has called the Nice attack “undeniably terrorist in nature” and has extended the state of emergency in France for an extra three months. That state of emergency began after the ISIS-perpetrated November 2015 Paris attacks that killed 130 people. France has also activated its operational reserve of 25,000 military, most of who are former gendarmes or ex-military, in an effort to bolster its border security.
Among European countries, France has a huge problem with “homegrown” militants and they have suffered some of the worst Jihadi assaults because of it. Their prisons are known terrorist recruiting grounds. France’s long history of violence in its encounters in North Africa and the Middle East add fuel to the fire, and their domestic Muslim community has long complained of discrimination and exclusion from French society. As of May 2015, about 1,800 people left France to join ISIS and similar groups, according to data from the Soufan Group, a security firm based in New York.
