Clint Watts of the Foreign Policy Research Institute has this essay in the weekend WSJ:
In fact, the formula for responding to America's white supremacist terrorism emergency is quite clear--in part because of our hard-won experience fighting jihadists from al Qaeda and its spawn, Islamic State. We must swiftly and carefully apply the best practices of the two decades since Sept. 11, 2001, to counter this decade's domestic terrorist threat--by passing new laws, increasing resources and enhancing investigative capabilities.
It's not as simple as cut-and-pasting our anti-al-Qaeda strategy, though. There are important differences in the movements, as Watts notes later in the article. There are constitutional issues involved in surveillance of U.S. citizens the way we do foreigners in foreign countries. There will be fierce political opposition to some of his proposals. Even so, it's a thoughtful piece, well worth reading and considering.
My pet peeve with newspaper headline writers continues. The headline in the online version is, "How to Fight the New Domestic Terrorism: The U.S. should use its hard-won experience against al Qaeda and Islamic State to combat today's surge of lethal white supremacist attacks." New? It goes back to Reconstruction. There may be a surge, but the problem isn't new.
THANK YOU for posting about this topic, and for providing a link to this very thoughtful essay.