The former head of US Central Command warned that the threat from ISIS is growing.
Retired General Frank McKenzie said ISIS has a “strong desire” to attack the US and other countries based on their statements. He noted recent attacks claimed by ISIS-K in Russia and Iran.
“I think the threat is growing,” McKenzie said.
McKenzie believes removing pressure on ISIS by withdrawing from Afghanistan has allowed the group to gain strength.
“It began to grow as soon as we left Afghanistan, it took pressure off ISIS-K,” McKenzie said. “So I think we should expect further attempts of this nature against the United States as well as our partners and other nations abroad. I think this is inevitable.”
While the US still has a military presence in Iraq and Syria, McKenzie says the US is now largely blind to activities in Afghanistan and unable to strike targets there.
He argues keeping a small troop presence would have prolonged pressure on extremists and possibly made the US safer.
“If you can keep pressure on them … in their homeland and their base, it makes it hard for them to conduct these types of attacks,” McKenzie said. “Unfortunately, we no longer place that pressure on them, so they’re free to gain strength, they’re free to plan, they’re free to coordinate.”
Both McKenzie and European leaders have warned that the prospect of war is more real, as seen by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and that nations must be prepared to defend themselves.
“I think there was probably good opportunity for the Russians to have averted this attack had they actually listened to the material that was presented to them,” McKenzie said.
“An attack on US soil is definitely a possibility,” a U.S. counter-terrorism official said. “It would certainly send a message.”
“I don’t want to scare anyone, but war is no longer a concept from the past,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said. “It’s real, and it started over two years ago.”
“For a nation for whom peace has been a pleasant companion for almost 210 years, the idea that it is an immovable constant is conveniently close at hand,” Swedish Civil Defense Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin said.
“But taking comfort in this conclusion has become more dangerous than it has been for a very long time,” he said. “Many have said it before me, but let me do so in an official capacity, more plainly and with naked clarity: There could be war in Sweden.”
