March 27--At Monday's meeting in suburban Aurora, one of two men now charged with aiding a foreign terrorist organization allegedly said a planned attack on a northern Illinois military installation would yield a "body count" of 100 to 150 people. His cousin, an Illinois National Guardsman with better knowledge of the facility and its inner workings, allegedly fine-tuned that prediction: He advised that the death toll would be closer to 120. Authorities arrested the second man Wednesday night at Chicago's Midway Airport as he tried to fly to Cairo, allegedly to join Islamic State fighters.
On Thursday, federal authorities laid out what they say was a serious terrorist plot. American doubters who assert that the feds exaggerate when they warn about domestic scheming often cite as their evidence the fact that no such major plot has succeeded since the more ambitious 9/11. But Wednesday's criminal complaint has compelling components, including its chronicle of the alleged plotters' trip to the military facility -- perhaps in Joliet -- to scout the attack. The guardsman allegedly was providing uniforms for attackers and described the inside of the installation, including which rooms the assailants would be wise to avoid during the assault. He went inside to retrieve a training schedule, ostensibly to aid the planning and execution, prosecutors say.
As the government attempts to prove its case, we hope Americans give some thought to one piece of evidence, a message from the guardsman in which he allegedly counseled that the best way to defeat the U.S. and its Army is "to break their will. With the U.S. no matter how many you kill they will keep coming unless the soldiers and the american (sic) people no longer have the will to fight. ... If we can break their spirits we will win. ... Knowing that we will never stop striving in the cause of all will break them. ... They will fold."
Is that true? As the costs of confronting Islamic State and other lethal groups intensify, the will of the American people is going to be tested again and again.
