The harsh reality of jihad

David French writes at The Corner,

...the Garland, Texas, terror attack now represents the sixth instance since 9/11 that terror suspects have been questioned by the federal government and gone on to participate in terror attacks.

Let’s not forget Attorney General Michael Mukasey’s op-ed after the Boston Marathon Bombings: Tamerlan Tsarnaev is the fifth person since 9/11 who has participated in terror attacks after questioning by the FBI. He was preceded by Nidal Hasan; drone casualty Anwar al Awlaki; Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad (born Carlos Leon Bledsoe), who murdered an Army recruit in Little Rock in June 2009; and David Coleman Headley, who provided intelligence to the perpetrators of the Mumbai massacre in 2008. That doesn’t count [underwear bomber Umar Farouk] Abdulmutallab, who was the subject of warnings to the CIA that he was a potential terrorist.

Now we can add Garland shooter Elton Simpson to the list. It turns out that we’re pretty effective at identifying potential terrorists, just not so effective at doing anything about it. It’s almost as if there’s an actual policy or philosophy at work here — one designed to minimize threats and rationalize extremism rather than deal with the harsh reality of jihad.