The war on terror isn’t over. In fact, it is coming home.
In 2013, President Barack Obama suggested the time had come to end America’s forever wars in favor of targeted strikes on terrorists. A decade later, President Biden didn’t just echo this sentiment; he stated that the U.S. was no longer at war “anywhere in the world.” Others speak of the war on terror as a historical effort (which might offer lessons for Israel to heed in Gaza), or simply state that terrorism remains “remarkably quiet.”
But these assessments fail to acknowledge that the war on terror is still very much alive — and that the greatest threats we face could soon come from within.
Terrorism’s center of gravity has almost always been thought of as far away, as terrorists like Yahya Sinwar, Osama bin Laden, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi fought and died on the other side of the world. But the most fertile ground for extremism and fanaticism is changing.
Israel’s war in Gaza is radicalizing a generation of young and intellectually competent Westerners. Acknowledging this, FBI Director Christopher Wray said in March 2024, “Our most immediate concern has been that individuals or small groups will draw twisted inspiration from the events in the Middle East to carry out attacks here at home.” Likewise, Avril Haines, Biden’s director of national intelligence, recently said that the situation in Gaza “will have a generational impact on terrorism.”
But it isn’t just intelligence officials who are sounding the alarm. Extremists here have been uncharacteristically vocal about their intentions as well. And unlike most of their predecessors, this new generation of extremists makes virtually no attempt to conceal their intentions or hatred for the West.
Historically, when the most barbaric terrorists or terrorist organizations have talked about killing us, they’ve done it from across oceans. Even domestic terrorists like the Boston Bombers, the Pulse Nightclub shooter, or the Pensacola naval base attacker either kept their radical worldviews to themselves or shared them quietly within existing echo chambers. Now, however, extremists are telling us what they want and what they plan to do, using megaphones in front of our homes, schools and businesses.
In Dearborn, Mich., for instance, a pro-Palestinian activist stated in April that Muslims should “turn back to the real Islam … [the] Islam that taught the resistance to prepare whatever strength and whatever weaponry it can in order to confront and to deter the enemies of Allah.” In Vancouver, British Columbia, protesters have stated, “We are Hezbollah” and “We are Hamas.” In Washington, D.C., outside the White House, protesters in June called for “jihad” and the killing of Zionists, and in Montreal last March, Palestinian protesters performed Nazi salutes and called for the death of Jews.
The fiery speeches we used to hear from Jalalabad or Karachi can now be heard live from our backyards.
While national security issues like the “new Cold War” with China, the War in Ukraine, and disrupting terrorist networks abroad must remain priorities, Western states should realize that our own countries are becoming terrorist sanctuaries.
Perhaps if we stop teaching children and young adults that Israel is a colonial entity, that Hamas and Hezbollah are fighting for liberation, that Zionism is racist, and that our own governments are complicit in genocide, we wouldn’t be facing such homegrown terror.
If we continue to perpetuate these dangerous lies and continue treating extremism and terrorism as something exclusively beyond our borders, we will have to buckle up for what’s to come.
Dr. Casey Babb is a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute’s Center for North American Prosperity and Security, a fellow with the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, an associate fellow with the Royal United Services Institute in London, and an adviser with Secure Canada in Toronto.
