The list of beliefs, words and/or actions that can get you labeled as a "racist" by the political left in America seems to grow with each passing year.  If you disagree with the current presidential administration's policies and the overall direction it's leading our nation, then you're a racist.  If you don't think preferential treatment should be given to individuals based solely on the color of their skin, you're a racist.  Should you believe in T.E.A.  Party principles of limited government and fiscal responsibility, you're a racist.  Heaven forbid you've ever actually attended a T.E.A.  Party meeting or event, then you're definitely a racist. 

It now appears there's yet a new way to earn one's way onto the "You're just a racist" guest list.   If you're willing to take a stand and say that jihadists who practice a form of Islam that is hell-bent on killing are jihadists who practice a form of Islam that is hell-bent on killing, you're a racist.

The Obama administration and the political left in America are hell-bent themselves.  Hell-bent on political correctness.  And it's making us all more vulnerable.  This refusal to call Islamic terrorism what it is, is beyond irresponsible.  This administration, which has taken such steps as ending our Space Shuttle program and re-commissioning the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to engage in outreach to Muslim nations of the world, conferring constitutional rights and privileges to non-U.S.-citizen terror suspects, and stripping language such as "terrorist" and "jihad" from military documents and training materials, either simply doesn't understand or refuses to publicly admit what we all know to be true.

The fact is, there are people on this planet who believe the world is inhabited by infidels, and that they are called by their god Allah and his prophet Mohammed to destroy the infidels.  This may be an over-simplified summation, but the elements of truth are known to everyone in America.

Yet there are those who believe the true root issue is not jihad but rather understanding and mutual respect.  These people naively think that if we just treat these jihadists well, understand them and encourage them to understand us, acknowledge the contributions of Muslims to human culture and science, that then they'll stop blowing people up.  Frighteningly enough, people who believe this are now running our country and are responsible for protecting us.  Sadly, with the cooperation of a complicit media, they have successfully carried out a PR campaign that says if you do not agree with their world view it is because you are a frightened bigot.  You are so hateful of people with darker skin than your own that you are not rational in your assessments of the world in which we live.

This posturing is now more dangerous than ever before.  The most recent acts of Islamist terror in the USA beg the question: "Is the face of domestic terror threats in the United States changing?"  It appears that it is, and the U.S.  counter-terrorism efforts, intelligence and police agencies charged with keeping us all safe had better be changing with it.  The days of massive scale operations like 9/11 are likely gone.  Having lost the element of surprise, the larger, more powerful combatant has been awakened and taken measures to protect itself.  Hence the Islamists have adopted an approach employed in much of the rest of the world. 

In boxing and combat sports there is a technique known as "stick-and-move."  It's employed when confronting a larger, more powerful opponent.  The idea is to get in a small shot then get out, stay away, look for an opening to land another, and sooner or later wear the behemoth down.  In isolation each individual blow does not inflict a significant amount of damage, it's the cumulative effect that begins to fatigue the opponent.  In this scenario the USA is the behemoth, Islamic terrorism the smaller combatant.

We in America have never seen this nor really been forced to think about it.  Citizens in much of Eastern Europe and nations of the Middle East live in an almost constant state of awareness over when and where the next attack may be lurking.  These smaller scale attacks, most often carried out with small munitions and/or improvised explosive devices, can come from anywhere.  They typically are carried out in a very public place and kill a relatively small number of people, sometimes just one or two, and maim a dozen or so. 

This is clearly the tactic that Islam is pivoting to in the USA.  From the Ft.  Hood shootings to the Boston Marathon murders earlier this year, smaller attacks, smaller numbers killed, carried out by one or two individuals.  Not the massive, global-scale, 9/11 type attacks that require coordination across oceans, dozens and dozens of people involved, complex communications networks and years of architecture. 

In certain cities and nations of the world (think Beirut, Jerusalem, etc.) random, small-ish terror attacks are a fact of life.  Going to the market, getting on a city bus or any number of activities you and I take for granted are a leap of faith and could well be the last thing you ever do.  The killers are in many cases homegrown, they look like everyone, blend in with everything and you never really know what's in the backpack that young man is wearing.

Yes, I typed "young man."  Why?  Because there is a general description that all of these terrorists fit.  They are males, generally between the 20 and 40 years of age, with dark hair, dark eyes,  and middle-eastern/Arab features and names.  But.  If you point this simple fact out, you're a racist.   

Exactly how those responsible for protecting us from this new reality of terrorism in the United States plan to do so is somewhat unclear.  By some estimates there are as many as 15,000 people are in America from nations where Islam is the predominant faith on visas to attend college, but who never showed up for classes.  They simply got here then dropped off the grid.  Many of these "students" fit the general physical description of the 19 hijackers who carried out the 9/11 attacks.  Where are these people and what are they doing?  Is this a question that can even be asked?  Is it time to take a more careful look at the student visa program and begin placing more tight restrictions on it?  Or does doing so make you a racist?

It's a common sense question that conservatives on Capitol Hill probably will not ask.  Why?  For fear that the R-word be used against them in the next campaign season and the racial divide in this nation grow even deeper, possibly costing them a job.  The business of labeling racists is very real, very effective, and growing by the moment.  And continuing to do so could ultimately result in the cities of America being much like cities of other nations -- giant paranoia zones where we're on count down to the next attack.  All because of the progressive left's insistence on blind political correctness.