Terror threat

Obama confronts a 'lone wolf' attack — again

Mateen and the San Bernardino shooters, Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik, have underscored the nation’s core vulnerability to Islamist groups like Al Qaeda and the Islamic State, also known as ISIL. Although they still aspire to down U.S. airliners and stage other spectacular attacks, by propagating their message online they can inflict blows on America from attackers who may be complete strangers.

A broad consensus exists among law enforcement officials and counterterrorism analysts that attacks like the one in Orlando are simply too easy for the authorities to prevent entirely. Powerful firearms are relatively cheap and accessible throughout the U.S. Shooting dozens of civilians at close range in a confined space like a nightclub requires no specialized training.

The Islamic State and Al Qaeda have used Twitter, YouTube and other social media platforms to instill hatred for non-Muslims in Muslims living in the U.S. and persuade them to mount self-directed attacks against random civilians. Social media giants like Facebook and Twitter are trying to crack down on such messages, but the task is daunting in scale.

...Obama’s Republican critics have repeatedly charged him with failing to fight ISIL aggressively enough, and many conservatives have long complained about Obama’s reluctance to use the phrase “radical Islam,” insisting that it is impossible to defeat an enemy without describing it accurately. (Administration aides call the phrase needlessly provocative to moderate Muslims.)