Kerby Anderson

Are we winning or losing the war with ISIS? That is a question Joel Rosenberg asks in a Fox News op-ed. He was on my radio program recently to talk about his latest fiction book, Without Warning. The previous president always seemed to minimize the threat of ISIS. He assured us early on that it was merely a “JV squad.” Even as he left office, he insisted that the tide had turned and that the U.S. was winning the war against ISIS. That is not how the American people view the current conflict. Joel Rosenberg asked McLaughlin & Association to survey 1,000 likely voters about their view of the war with the Islamic State. What they found was sobering. Only one-in-three Americans believe “the U.S. and our allies are winning the war against the Islamic State.” A remarkable 41 percent believe “the U.S. and our allies are losing the war against the Islamic State.” They also found that almost seven-in-ten (68%) said they “fear catastrophic terrorist attacks by ISIS are coming to the U.S. homeland, possibly involving chemical or biological weapons.” These findings reinforce the warning of Rosenberg’s newest political thriller that speculates on how the government might respond to an ISIS attack on the capitol. And it raises questions of whether ISIS has access to WMDs and how they might use them against Israel and the United States. While the book is fiction, the reality on the ground illustrates why we should pay attention to this potential threat. ISIS has built a global terrorist network and drawn recruits from 120 countries. Since 2014, 117 people have been arrested in the U.S. for connection to ISIS terrorist plots. Joel Rosenberg’s book and his latest survey remind us of the need for our country to focus on the threat from ISIS.