The Washington Post ran a story yesterday highlighting the growing trend of “amateur” terror attacks — those using low-tech means to inflict damage and casualties. We’ve been warning about this for years. The Post also acknowledged the growing problem of the Islamic State’s influence on so-called “lone wolf” terrorists. France in particular has been struggling to deal with the seemingly unending stream of murderous terrorist acts. In Germany, the federal chairman of the German Police Union said, “We need at least 20,000 additional police officers, but even that won’t do.” The reason that won’t do is the fact that throughout Europe these supposed “lone wolf” attackers are not part of sophisticated terror cells, which is making them virtually impossible to identify and track. He went on to say, “If ISIS did have structures in Germany, we would be able to monitor them.”

But lack of structure doesn’t mean inspiration isn’t key, or that they aren’t essentially wolves from the same pack.

To add to the problem are the number of new migrants who are unregistered or have assumed a false identity, but some estimates are as high as 400,000 to 500,000 in Germany alone. Talk about looking for needles in a massive hay stack. On top of the numbers is the fact that, as France can attest, nowhere is safe from these “lone wolf” terrorist attacks, be it large cities or small towns — and this may be the most terrifying aspect of the problem.

While the administration preaches that the danger posed by ISIL is contained and shrinking, they stubbornly deny the growing evidence at hand. The Left point to the American culture as the primary motivation for the attacks, essentially blaming the victims rather than the culprits. Meanwhile, ISIL’s continued call for Muslims to engage in jihad against the West is metastasizing into more and more attacks. The West cannot rightly meet the challenge posed by Islamic terror if we are unwilling to acknowledge the truth about the nature of the enemy.