National Post (National Edition)
Domestic terror a U.S. reality show from hell
The late, great comedian Robin Williams once famously described Canada as “a really nice apartment over a meth lab.”
Unfortunately for the next week or more, the “meth lab” is on high alert. Canadians, locked down behind our closed border due to COVID-19, will be glued to television coverage as America tackles another scourge, its armed and dangerous neo-Nazi and white supremacist movements.
More U.S. troops than are stationed in Europe, Iraq or Afghanistan are being deployed in Washington and 50 capitals following dire warnings by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security that this weekend Donald Trump's most radicalized followers will lead armed attacks across the country.
Americans are now under virtual martial law after Trump was impeached this week for inciting the riot in Washington that led to five deaths and the seizure of the Capitol building.
Now the United States is the reality show from hell. The ratings will be incredible as the whole world watches. And nobody knows how long this will last. That's because the American establishment has no idea as to the scale of the threat, or the number of participants.
What they do know, however, is that there are 120 guns in America for every citizen, the world's highest ratio.
Other countries carefully track their domestic terrorism, but America does not because it has no domestic terrorism statutes, nor does it carefully collect statistics on hate crimes. The result is that nobody knows what the U.S. is dealing with here.
In 2019, counterterrorism and cybersecurity expert Clint Watts testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs that this lapse makes defence difficult.
“Lacking designations for initiating a nationwide case for pursuing connected violence, federal law enforcement largely pursues cases reactively after an attack,” he said. “Individual cases are pursued across dozens or even hundreds of jurisdictions even though subjects congregate, communicate, and collaborate with each other in online environments. Domestic terrorism's lack of designation also results in no effective measure for understanding the size, shape, and scale of each violent extremist threat.”
It has taken the riot in Washington, the frightening display of white power in Charlottesville in 2017, presidential dog whistles and incitement, and a rash of mass murders for Americans to finally realize that homegrown terrorism represents an existential threat.
Worse, they are now learning that many of their military, police and politicians cannot be trusted. The FBI believes that the Washington riot was an “inside job,” according to TMZ, aided and abetted by some members of Congress or their aides and police. This confirms a report last year that supremacists and neoNazis had infiltrated security, military and police forces across the country. At least two radical members of Congress itself are under investigation.
This catastrophe is no longer about soccer moms or polarization. The House of Representatives impeached Trump because his speech was a direct call to arms to American fanatics or others drawn to gunplay, body armour, and wild conspiracies. Trump always played with matches and now America's on fire.
As I wrote last week, Canadians won't simply be spectators during this tense time. We may have stayed away from Florida and Arizona this winter, but living atop the meth lab represents a hazard too. The Americans must, and will, crack down severely in the days to come. As some of the culprits flee to the north, Canada's security and police forces will be inducted into joining the fight. And we may also end up with some here in hiding.
Unfortunately, when the meth lab is finally raided, everyone in the building is affected, including the quiet neighbours up north who always wear headphones.