Every major American city, particularly Los Angeles, is permeated by
tens of thousands of terrorists and organized "cells", that are just
awaiting the right chain of events to go into action. These are not
potential killers, but actual ones. They are not immigrant radical
Muslims, but native born criminal gang members. They're not exotic
looking Hezbollah or Islamic Jihad trainees, but our own "Made in the
U.S.A." Crips and Bloods, neo-Nazis, Surenos and Nortenos, and Asian
gang members. They're primarily the lost legions of the uneducated,
unparented, abused, and mentally deficient . They're the socially
unassimilated young men and women whom we turned our backs on and who
have now come back to haunt us. And if we don't respond to this growing
wave, being "haunted" by these hoods will be the least of our
problems. Criminal gang members are already well on their way to
destroying our public school system, undermining our family structure,
and taking total control of many poorer communities. If radical steps
aren't rapidly taken, we'll soon be seeing war-zone style news photos
with domestic bylines.
The odd thing is that nobody seems too concerned. Not after a major
Chicago gang actually placed one of its leaders on the ballot to run
for a City Council position a few years ago. Not after the recent
attempt by some Miami gang members to arrange a domestic, contract
bombing for any interested Middle Eastern terrorist group. Not as
we're watching the illegal weapons market in the U.S. grow to the point
where purchasing an AK-47 or hand grenade from a gangster on the street
is no more difficult than buying out-of-season firecrackers. A
growing number of gangs have access to far more powerful
military-style weapons. The source? They have gang members enroll in
the military, request an assignment in the weapons dispensary, and then
smuggle weapons off base and into the hands of their homicidal homies.
We fear the possible use of a single nuclear weapon half a world away.
Does anyone worry about our own vulnerable 100+ nuclear power plants?
With their proven lack of security, they're an obvious target for any
street gang looking to make a name for themselves?
We hate sending our servicemen to patrol the deadly streets of Iraq,
where an average of three U.S. military personnel have been killed,
every single day since the war started. Thank goodness we aren't
deploying these men and women in the streets of a far more deadly
country: our own U.S.A....where during this same three year period, 15
TIMES more people have been murdered, with criminal gangs accounting
for a major share of these victims.
Think about what 's made the current Israel/Lebanon conflict so
difficult to arbitrate: the fact that Hezbollah terrorists and the
recognized Lebanese government are almost one and the same. This
confused mixing of the evil and outlaw with the elected and good,
cloaks terrorist groups with a deceptive, dangerous appearance of
legitimacy.
"How can this happen?", we say. "How does a legitimate government come
to use public funding to support terrorist groups?" Just look
stateside at a fact most people are unaware of. Our own government has
a growing habit of funneling millions of dollars of public funding
into private agencies that claim to use ex-prison gang members to stop
gang violence in our urban centers. The problem is, there's nothing
"former" or "ex" about many of these hardcore, still-afilliated
counselors. Based on the increase in gang activity, a convincing
argument can be made that these gang intervention agencies (who aspire
to setting up gang-run business empires) are actually successful
recruiters and marketers for the gangs of the 21st century: fronting
social acceptability, while the evil lifestyle becomes more
permanently entrenched, publicly funded, and legitimized.
Arguments abound as to whether we're winning or losing our efforts to
bring peace to the Middle East. We relieve our anxiety somewhat by
reassuring ourselves that if it gets too bad over there, we can always
safely withdraw to within our own national borders. Ironically, that
may turn out to be the most dangerous location of all, unless the
present trajectory of gang growth and destruction is challenged and
reversed.