March 15, 2010: While Americans like to think there have been no terrorist attacks in the United States since September 11, 2001, that's not exactly true. There have been a few, and many more attempts that were prevented by the federal and local police. In the last six months there have been seven incidents of attempted, or actual, terrorist operations based in the United States.

Last September, Afghan Najibullah Zazi, a legal U.S. resident, was arrested for planning suicide bombings in New York City. He later pled guilty and implicated his accomplices. Last October, David Coleman Headley (an American citizen) was arrested for planning to attack a Danish newspaper (that published material that Islamic radicals did not like). Last November, a U.S. Army officer, major Nidal Malik Hasan, killed 13 people and wounded 30 at Fort Hood, Texas. Hasan had been in touch with Islamic terrorists in Yemen, and made no secret of his Islamic radical attitudes. At first, the U.S. government insisted this was not a case of Islamic terrorism. As the evidence of Hasan's Islamic radical activities piled up, that attitude changed.

Also in November, the government charged eight Somali immigrants for recruiting dozens of other Somalis to join Islamic terrorist groups in Somalia. In December, five Moslem men from Virginia were arrested in Pakistan. The five were caught in a raid on an Islamic terrorist safe house. The five Virginia men admitted they were on their way to join the Taliban. Also in December, a Nigeria flying in from Europe, tried to set off a bomb strapped to his leg. Due to his own ineptness, and the intervention of other passengers, he was unsuccessful. Most recently, two American women, one of them in Ireland, were arrested and charged with plotting the murder of a Danish journalist who had offended Islamic radicals.

Islamic radicalism, like many radical movements before it, is drawing from a large pool of people willing to die for a cause. Some of these folks are not choosy, and will join up with Islamic radicals if there seems to be an opportunity to do some righteous mayhem. This is aided by Islamic radicalism being adopted by leftists, who have been searching for a new cause since the Cold War ended. Radical leftists are increasingly willing to support Islamic radicals, as are many other types of radicals. Thus the war on terror is far from over, although things will calm down as more people in the West realize that Islamic radicalism has lost its allure in most of the Moslem world.