(New York City) -- Do Americans believe we are winning or losing the war against the Islamic State? Do they believe ISIS will launch terror attacks inside the homeland? Do they believe ISIS might even try to use weapons of mass destruction? And do they believe we are at war with the religion of Islam, or just a subset of extremists that could be best described as the forces of "radical Islam"?
These are the very questions and themes I explore in my new thriller,
Without Warning, just released this week. But as we prepared for the book launch, I asked my publisher if we could commission an exclusive national survey to better understand how Americans view the actual war against the Islamic State.
Tyndale House readily agreed, so we turned to McLaughlin & Associates, a respected U.S. polling firm who clients have included U.S. Senators and Congressmen, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Trump campaign.
The results we found were sobering.
Here are some excerpts from my Fox News column:
- President Donald Trump has made the defeat of the Islamic State one of his administration’s top priorities – and rightly so.
- He has asked the Pentagon for a comprehensive new war plan. On March 22-23, his Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, will host foreign ministers from 68 countries to discuss how to significantly improve our combined efforts to crush ISIS once and for all. In April, Mr. Trump and Vice President Pence will reportedly host a summit for Sunni Arab leaders towards the same end.
- It is useful, therefore, to consider the question: at present, are we winning or losing the war against the Islamic State?....
- Only one-in-three Americans believe “the U.S. and our allies are winning the war against the Islamic State and getting safer every day.”
- A remarkable 41 percent believe “the U.S. and our allies are losing the war against the Islamic State and the threat to our safety is growing.”
- Fully one-in-four say they had no idea if we’re winning or not.
- We also found that almost seven-in-ten Americans (68%) said they “fear catastrophic terrorist attacks by ISIS are coming to the U.S. homeland, possibly involving chemical or biological weapons.”....
- President Trump is absolutely right to ask his advisors to design and execute a war plan that will achieve victory, and significantly improve homeland security policies to keep the American people safe from attack. ISIS is coming. God forbid we let ourselves be blindsided.
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