Opinion: The other shoe is falling — listen to Trump about terrorism and WWIII

On Sept. 11, 2001, while driving to work in Washington, D.C., I witnessed the American Airlines plane that slammed into the Pentagon. Not only was that terrorist target a building I had worked in for three years, but I had a former coworker on the doomed aircraft.

Minutes later, a cousin of mine would be one of the first to rush into the burning building in an attempt to save lives.

The issues we now disagree about — or actively hate each other over — truly seem trivial in comparison to that day and the following weeks, when almost every car in the nation flew an American flag in both pride in our nation and in defiance of the attack.

Coming up on 23 years later, virtually no cars in the U.S. have American flags. Even worse, many on the left have come to view the flag as a symbol of hate and repression.

Partisan politics is an acid that corrodes all it touches — an acid made exponentially stronger by social media and those who hide in the shadows and behind masks while sowing division and hate.

But as they do, they would be wise to look up. For if they did, they would see another shoe about to drop in one of our cities: the return of the threat of a massive terrorist attack upon our shores.

The terrorists don’t care about our trivial disagreements and scream fests. But they do welcome them. Because they represent a distraction from the hell on earth they are planning. For an example of a nation distracted by partisan politics being attacked, look no further than Israel on Oct. 7.

On 9/11, someone from every single demographic in our nation was killed or wounded. Democrat, Republican, liberal, conservative, straight, gay, trans, black, white, brown. It did not matter. All were targets that day.

Earlier this week, while a guest on “Hannity” on Fox News, former President Donald Trump spoke about the growing threat of yet another terrorist attack upon America. Trump said he believed with “100 percent certainty” that we would be hit again.

His main reason for saying this was because of the thousands of presumed terrorists that have illegally crossed into our nation incognito during the Biden administration.

Suicidal partisan politics dictates that we are now not allowed to bring up that subject nor address it. Instead, are supposed to feign ignorance about this very real problem until the unthinkable happens as a result.

In a flash, we will lose untold Americans. Dead or dying by the thousands. But hey, at least we will not have offended anyone before the blast.

And speaking of blasts, Trump has consistently — and correctly, in my opinion — warned that the war between Ukraine and Russia is littered with tripwires that could trigger World War III. But we have to ignore the greatest threat in our lifetime for two amazingly stupid reasons. The first, again, is partisan politics, or perhaps more accurately hatred of Trump. The worlds of media, academia, entertainment, science and medicine insist that we not only ignore the warning but smear the messenger.

The second reason is that if you want an immediate cease-fire in Ukraine to prevent tactical nuclear strikes in the heart of London, then you must be a “Putin lover.”

Step back from the partisanship, anger and hate for just a moment to think about this. We are deliberately ignoring the two greatest threats to our nation and the world, either because we don’t like the person issuing the warnings, or we don’t like the views of the groups behind the warnings.

Hate on Trump all you want, but he is right about the looming threats of terrorism and global war. And while I understand many on the left also don’t like the word “pray” being used in public, we should all pray that Trump isn’t proven right.

Look up. Above the other falling shoe is another and another. They will land.

Douglas MacKinnon, a political and communications consultant, was a writer in the White House for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, and former special assistant for policy and communications at the Pentagon during the last three years of the Bush administration.

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