[August 2, 2016] Terrorism, specifically Islamic terrorism, has been one of the biggest stories of 2016. The evil brew of ideology, religion, and fanaticism has swirled for some time now with targeted attacks on the innocent. Senior political leadership in most of Western nations has, for the most part, been blind to its effects and has been one of the greatest leadership failures of the century. But are we about to see a shift in terror tactics as the 2016 Olympics are about to begin in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil?
When senior leaders fail, everyone suffers and this will likely be the case of Islamic terrorist attacks in various parts of the world as national governments miscalculate the impacts of terrorism. The question for many of us is whether the Brazilian government will fail to protect its citizens and the many visitors who are coming to see the upcoming Olympic Games. What about future “soft targets” like other sporting events where large numbers of people attend?
What we know from open intelligent sources is that Islamic jihadists are calling for “mayhem” in Brazil at the Olympics. Such an effort would be a propaganda coup of huge proportions and certainly result in more successful recruiting efforts; people join winning causes. This would fit nicely into the current wave of successful attacks across Europe, in the United States, and elsewhere.
Fortunately, the United States, Brazil, and a few other nations have joined together to improve the Brazilian security forces. A number of holes were identified by American experts in Brazil’s security network.1 Fortunately, there have been some significant leadership successes as the U.S. and Brazil improved their chilly political relationship. The sobering fact that ISIS has stepped up its efforts to disrupt the games has been the motivating factor in improved relations.
ISIS efforts to cause mayhem at the Olympic Games in Brazil are no shift in tactics but a part of its overall effort to expand its ideology. Expansion is the name of the game. Expansion means success. Some say that this is in fact a shift of tactics but such thinking is antiquated and useless if a nation wants to prevent such evil from spreading.
The first thing that must be done is to discredit the ideology; something Western leaders have both failed to recognize and understand. The West needs new leaders. Until that happens ISIS will continue to gain, if not territory, converts to their way of life.
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