The radical Muslim Taliban gave safe harbor to terrorist Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan prior to and after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
So it is alarming that the Taliban are believed to have been behind the recent attempted car bombing in New York City’s Times Square. The Obama administration said it found new evidence pointing to the Taliban in Pakistan, which borders Afghanistan. That is a reversal from its original statement that the suspect probably acted alone.
The suspected would-be bomber, Faisal Shahzad, is a recently naturalized U.S. citizen of Pakistani origin. He has said he trained with radical Muslims in his homeland.
Fortunately for the many people who were in Times Square when a vehicle full of potential explosives was left there, ineffective components were used and it did not explode.
But think of the devastation it could have wrought — both physically to the immediate victims and emotionally to our nation — if it had gone off. And what if terrorists drove car bombs into crowded areas from New York to Los Angeles, and to dozens of crowded cities in between, and simultaneously detonated them? There is very little direct defense against such vicious acts.
That makes it absolutely vital that our nation stay on the offensive against terrorists — both at home and abroad — to keep them off balance and unable to re-enact the horrible events of 9/11. They have made it clear they seek to harm us. We should reduce as much as possible their opportunities to do so by defeating them wherever they may be.