EDUCATION OF A DIRECTOR – AT 8:14 A.M. ET:  Related to our first post this morning, the new director of the FBI is reasserting that terrorism remains the Bureau's main concern.  This may disappoint the White House, but we're glad that Director Comey is getting it right.  From Mediaite: 

Al Qaeda’s affiliates are both stronger and more prolific than previously anticipated, FBI director James Comey told the New York Times on Monday. While the Times noted that some expected Comey to be the first post-9/11 FBI director to redirect his focus away from terrorism, he clarified that Islamic radicalism is as potent a force as ever.

“I didn’t have anywhere near the appreciation I got after I came into this job just how virulent those affiliates had become,” Comey told the Times when asked if he thought the threat of al Qaeda-related terrorism had diminished.

Referring to the terror group’s affiliates in Africa and the Middle East, Comey said that the threat of terrorism against American interest sis as present as ever. “There are both many more than I appreciated, and they are stronger than I appreciated,” he confessed.

Comey told the Times that he is convinced terrorism must remain the Bureau’s primary focus.

COMMENT:  Americans are an impatient people.  We want quick results, the easier the better.  But we should learn from the lesson of the Cold War that victory can take many years, even decades.  We are engaged in a battle of ideas and resources.  We should remember that when we choose our next president, for it is the president, despite the entreaties of Congress, who conducts our foreign and defense policies. 

Right now we have the weakest foreign-policy president in recent memory.  The results pour in every day.  Only two forces have gained under Obama's presidency – Communism, through the rise of the new Russia, and Islamic extremism, through the rise of Iran and the continued exploits of Al Qaeda.  The next president will have to clean up this mess.

May 20, 2014