Smart diplomacy

We had zero terrorist attacks in the U.S. for eight years following 9/11.

We've had four terrorist attacks in America in the fifteen months since Obama became president in January 2009:

• a deadly shooting attack by Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad on a military recruiting center in Little Rock, Arkansas in May 2009 that killed a US soldier and injured another;

• the terrorist massacre shooting attack by Nidal Malik Hasan in Fort Hood, Texas in November 2009 that murdered 13 and injured scores of others;

• the failed Christmas day terrorist "underpants bomb" attack on a US airliner bound for Detroit by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab; and

• the failed Times Square SUV bombing by Faisal Shahzad last Friday in NYC.

If it hadn't been that the bombs built by the terrorists in the last two attempts did not go off (i.e., their stupidity or pure dumb luck), hundreds of people would have been killed, and more injured.

As MatchDoctor noted after the Christmas day bombing attempt: "Apparently, President Obama's gestures -- announcing the closing down of the Guantanamo Bay detention center that houses more terrorists, engaging the terrorists in dialog, and telling the terrorists the date that we will surrender in Afghanistan so they won't be so angry at us -- has not achieved the desired effect."

And each time, government authorities urged the public not to jump to any conclusions about this being Islamic terrorism or that these individuals were acting in concert with others.

Indeed, it's ironic that NYC Mayor Bloomberg, for example, after suggesting that the Times Square bombing attempt could have been perpetrated by some right-wing extremist who disagreed with the president's policies, self-righteously proclaimed that the city "will not tolerate any bias" or a backlash against NYC Muslims.