Perhaps the only surprising element about Friday's terrorist attacks in Paris was the fact that they only happened now. France's involvement in the fight against the Islamic State group and the ease in which France can be targeted had most experts believing it should have happened a long time ago. What prevented it until now was most likely a lack of operational ability by Islamic State, as well as intelligence measures taken by France and its European allies, including Israel. Quite a few people were placed under surveillance or detained, but as it turns out, it was just a drop in the bucket. What happened in Paris over the weekend can only be described as a resounding security failure, on intelligence, operational, and perceptual levels. From an intelligence standpoint, this was a multi-pronged attack involving several terrorists. They would have had to scout the venues, gather intelligence, coordinate their actions, and obtain weapons -- all steps that can be detected and thwarted. It is very difficult to thwart the actions of a lone terrorist, who leaves his surroundings ignorant of his intentions. A group of terrorists uses communication devices that can be tracked and therefore their plan can be foiled. If that does not happen it signals an intelligence failure, especially since the perpetrators were quite obviously radical Islamists, and it is likely some of them were familiar to law enforcement agencies in their respective countries. From an operational standpoint, the French seemed hysterical, completely at a loss vis-à-vis the simultaneous terrorist attacks. The mayhem caused by the multiple strikes can account for some of the surprise, but security forces are supposed to be trained to handle such scenarios. If the French had been less complacent and better trained, their reaction to a real-time event would have been smoother, and we would have been spared the hysterics: the way French President François Hollande was rushed from a soccer stadium to safety, and the decision to close the Eiffel Tower, Euro Disney, and the French borders, all proved terrorism victorious. From a perceptual standpoint, if you fail to nip domestic terrorism in the bud, it will grow and grow and bring your house down. Israel learned this lesson over years of fighting Palestinian terrorism, and it should have been a lesson learned by the French after the Jan. 7 attacks. Those who failed to undercut the radical Salafists in Iraq and Syria will now have to deal with them in Paris, and later perhaps in London, Rome, Madrid and maybe even in the United States. The obvious conclusion is that the French must wake up, stop hesitating, change their laws, begin gathering intelligence on suspect French citizens, and fight back. The same goes for other Western countries. This is a war for the very existence of mankind, and it requires resources, tenacity, and perseverance. This war will entail casualties, on the front line as well as the home front, but the good guys will win, eventually. All it takes is for the good guys to realize that they must unite in this war, because fighting it alone is doomed to fail. The coalition seeking to eradicate Islamic State is bigger than the one that came together to fight the Nazis, but it remains a coalition on paper only. Islamic State has been able to carry out three quality attacks -- downing the Russian passenger plane over Sinai on Oct. 31, the suicide bombing in Beirut on Thursday, and the Paris attacks the following night -- in a short period of time. Unless the West wakes up and unites in the fight against this jihadi group, these attacks may prove the prelude to much deadlier events.
