They didn't target Charlie Hebdo this time.
They don't hate us because we draw blasphemous cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad. They don't hate us because of our policy in Israel (except to say that they hate the fact that Israel exists). They are not retaliating for any specific military or "Imperial" move on our part, with the possible exception of our retreat from leadership.
Rather, they despise us because of who we are and what we stand for, and they hold us in contempt for the weakness we are showing by allowing them to overrun our countries and our cultures, and for running away when the going gets too easy.
In June 2014 I wrote that, "In the Fall of 2008...a majority of Americans, including a plurality of Republicans, were eager to get beyond George W. Bush and their weariness of his Iraq misadventure. That scorn may soon turn to nostalgia as the American people realize how much has been lost in the squandering of the real gains and opportunities afforded us at the height of our success in Iraq in that year." See: Our Intolerable Success in Iraq.
Are we there yet?
If not, we only have continue on cruise control and wait for it. In Europe, it started with mass, uncontrolled immigration of a culture hostile to western values, leading eventually to neighborhoods governed by Sharia law, "No-Go" zones for westerners in their own cities, and public thoroughfares blocked for mass Islamic prayers. Now we have the simultaneous, coordinated massacre of over 100 French, American and other western citizens.
Recently, we have our first American city (Hamtranck, Michigan) electing a Muslim majority to its city council, ready to be governed by Sharia, and unlawful street-blocking Islamic prayers in Los Angeles.
Twenty years ago, Rudy Guilliani demonstrated how barbarism could be subdued via a policy of zero tolerance for petty crimes. We can still stave off catastrophe if we will simply reassert the confidence of our culture and our constitution.
Please read The Barbarians Are Inside, And There Are No Gates, by Mark Steyn, at: SteynOnline.com.
And: Adios, America!: The Left's Plan to Turn Our Country into a Third World Hellhole. (Maybe that should be "Wadaeaan, Amrika!"