Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton is warning that viewing the terror attack on an Orlando nightclub as a policing matter is a major mistake and criticized Obama for doing just that in the aftermath of the attack. This is an act of war, Bolton warned, not just a law enforcement issue.

Appearing on Fox News’ “America’s Election HQ” on Sunday, Bolton slammed Obama for treating the attack “solely as a law enforcement matter, and not as a struggle with an ideology that despises our entire way of life.”

Bolton criticized Obama for again responding to a terror attack without once saying “Islamic terror” in his response. But even if Obama did merely say the words it wouldn’t change his dismal policy, Bolton said ruefully.

“The fact is this is war is and not law enforcement,” Bolton said. “This attack is not the equivalent of a jumped-up on the corner grocery store. This is an act of war against the United States. Obama has never acted in response that way.”

Bolton continued saying the way to defeat this terrorism is “militarily in the places that it exists.” He also said Obama’s airstrikes have not been enough to drive ISIS out of their strongholds in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.

Bolton criticized those who say these attacks are “lone wolf” attacks.

“We will, in the coming days, doubtless hear that the terrorist was a lone wolf,” Bolton wrote in his commentary on FoxNews.com, “that he did not belong to any known terrorist organization, that there are no wider threats. In particular, those who are blind to the terrorist threat will downplay even the incontrovertible fact that Mateen pledged loyalty to ISIS as he committed his murders.”

Bolton also said even if a terrorist is not directly connected to any specific terror outfit, the ideology is pervasive and easily accessed even without getting directly involved in an actual terror group. So, being a certified member of a terror group is not necessarily relevant.

“We simply must start acknowledging,” Bolton wrote, “that terrorists–whether ISIS, Al Qaeda, or others–are not structured like governments or corporations. They are not staffed with desk-bound bureaucrats in grey suits, arranged pursuant to a complex, hierarchical organization chart. They do not send memoranda to each other through a complex clearance process, with copies distributed far and wide.”

Bolton finally criticized Obama for his response to terror saying that Obama clearly thinks the U.S. is in the wrong, not the terrorists. Bolton said that “Obama manifestly believes that, as bad as terrorist attacks are, American ‘overreaction’ is worse,” than the terrorism visited upon us.

This is, of course, utter nonsense. We are obviously defending ourselves from attack, not initiating it. And it is palpably our failure to defend ourselves that provides incentives for the terrorist to strike even harder. Here is where Obama’s failure to pursue the campaign against ISIS in Syria and Iraq is so damaging. A slow, casual offensive against ISIS gives the terrorists time and opportunity to encourage strikes like the one we have just seen.

Bolton concluded that the U.S. needs to step up its targeting of terrorists, not slack off on this goal.

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Warner Todd Huston

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