Paris. San Bernardino. Brussels. Nice. Istanbul. Rouen. The pace of terrorist attacks linked to ISIS has accelerated over the past two years. Indeed, the independent organisation IntelCenter estimates that since June 8 there has been an attack directed or inspired by ISIS every 84 hours, not counting those in active war zones.
In both Europe and the United States, citizens are distraught by their governments’ inability to effectively combat terrorism. Just days after a man drove a lorry through a crowded celebration of Bastille Day in Nice, killing 84 people, French prime minister Manuel Valls was booed as he observed a minute’s silence there. At the recent national convention of the Republican Party in the United States, candidate Donald Trump painted a grim picture of a nation threatened by terrorism and in need of a strong hand to impose law and order.
