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Maybe it was just a play for sympathy or an attempt to prove that he was remorseful, but when former U.S. Army Private Cole Bridges appeared in court to be sentenced for plotting to aid Islamic State jihadis in carrying out massacres in the United States, as well as ambushing and murdering his fellow soldiers, he actually requested the maximum 40-year sentence. Bridges appears to have realized the disastrous course his life has taken, but will military and intelligence officials absorb the lessons of his case? Not a chance.
Fox News reported Saturday that Bridges got a sentence of fourteen years, rather than forty, despite telling Judge Lewis J. Liman: “Honestly, I do believe that I deserve the maximum sentence. I know what I did was wrong.” He added that he would feel “regret for as long as I live.”
Back in September 2019, Bridges joined the Army; he became a cavalry scout for the Third Infantry Division in Fort Stewart, Georgia. However, the seeds of his personal disaster had already been planted: Fox notes that “about a year before he joined the Army, Bridges began researching and consuming online propaganda promoting jihadists and their violent ideology, and began to express his support for ISIS and jihad on social media.”
After he had been in the army for roughly a year, he “began communicating with an FBI online covert employee (OCE), who was posing as an ISIS supporter in contact with ISIS fighters in the Middle East.” He “expressed his frustration with the U.S. military and his desire to aid ISIS.” Nor did he just talk: “Bridges provided training and guidance to purported ISIS fighters who were planning attacks, including advice about potential targets in New York City. He also provided the OCE with portions of a U.S. Army training manual and guidance about military combat tactics, with the understanding that the materials would be used by ISIS in future attack planning.”
That wasn’t all. Around Dec. 2020, according to the Justice Department, Bridges gave his ISIS contact “instructions for the purported ISIS fighters on how to attack U.S. forces in the Middle East.” He “diagrammed specific military maneuvers intended to help ISIS fighters maximize the lethality of attacks on U.S. troops.” He also “provided advice about the best way to fortify an ISIS encampment to repel an attack by U.S. Special Forces, including by wiring certain buildings with explosives to kill the U.S. troops.”
Warming to his role, Bridge made a video of himself, which he passed on to his contact, in which he wears army body armor while “standing in front of a flag often used by ISIS fighters and making a gesture symbolic of support for ISIS.” He also sent along “a propaganda speech in support of the anticipated ambush by ISIS on U.S. troops.”
It’s good that he got caught, but the most important question is the one no one is asking: what got into this kid? The reason why no one is asking this question is that there are two answers, both of which involve hard truths that no one wants to hear. The first and most obvious answer is that Bridges went from U.S. soldier to traitor because of Islam. Pointing it out will get you swift charges of “Islamophobia,” which is why no one dares discuss such matters, but Islamic theology includes the concept of the umma, the supranational community of believers to whom every Muslim theoretically owes an allegiance that is above all other allegiances except to Allah himself.
Thus when Cole Bridges became a Muslim, he was likely told that his identity as an American came second to his identity as a Muslim. That is not necessarily problematic; innumerable Christians think the same thing about Christianity. But he was also probably informed that America, by attacking Muslims in Afghanistan and Iraq, and by supporting Israel, had become an enemy of Islam, such that it was his duty as a Muslim to wage jihad against it.
The second answer to the question of what got into Cole Bridges is just as unwelcome: America got into him. Our leftist-dominated, rootless, materialistic, narcissistic, self-obsessed, reality-denying society is leading increasing numbers of young people to think that something, anything, that provides some standards and expectations will be better.
With the churches all too often hanging up Pride flags and aping the secular culture, many are finding Islam’s absolute unwillingness to compromise with the spirit of the age refreshing. The only problem is that part of Islam’s rejection of the values of our society is an aggressive and supremacist impulse that leads many believers to want to do violence to unbelievers in order to compel them to convert or submit as inferiors to Islamic hegemony. If our culture had any sane values, this might not appear so attractive. But…well, you know that story.
In any case, the lessons of Cole Bridges’ case will not be learned. Despite the large numbers of converts to Islam who turn to terrorism, authorities have never shown any interest in this phenomenon or made any effort to counter it. This will only ensure that there will be many more young men like Cole James Bridges.
Give him Life without Parole so he cant run for Office as a Democrat/Traitor
I thought Traitors were hung…
Like Hanoi Jane
This Bridges fella reminds me of Mike McCartney’s Norton. …
We are NEVER going to change islam, only muslims can change islam.
We need to STOP interfering in their nations and trying to turn them into our way of life, they don’t want to be like us, we are weak and pathetic in their eyes.
Take a look around you and they are right.
When THEY attack US we should respond in the way that they understand and believe! Their ideology is 7th Century and we should RETURN them TO their beloved 7th Century by destroying everything developed AFTER the 7th Century! We should immediately destroy their airports, seaports, electrical infrastructure, bridges, and anything else considered “western”! In essence, we should make it impossible for them to venture far from their nation. And for SURE we should not allow ANY of them to enter the USA! When YOUR IDEOLOGY is BASED of the DESTRUCTION of OUR NATION then NO, YOU DO NOT BELONG HERE!!
As far as this TRAITOR? The PUNISHMENT should be either HANGING or FIRING SQUAD! Imagine how many little peckerhead idiots would see that and maybe have a slightly altered opinion on the latest fad??
Thank God we don’t have enemies actually inside the ramparts of our military who teach our Soldiers, Sailors and Marines that the country they have sworn to defend is evil, racist and its entire existence is based upon death and enslavement of “people of color.
If that were so, such brainwashing might actually lead them to support this jihad from within.
VERY good article. The basis of our society is dissolving and this is another example.
Also I wonder why we as a society are afraid to be called names? Racist, sexist, homophobe and islamaphobe are synonymous with telling the truth about trendy babble. If we are afraid of castigation by our nerd class we will roll over and surrender even more quickly. Can we not stand up for truth?
Type and delete several times. Guess I’m not ready to say what I truly think of this sorry piece of work` without resorting to unacceptable vulgarities.
It DOES seem he has improper relations with his mother.
If this isn’t literally outright Treason–in the literal words of our own Constitution’s definition of that Crime–then what is?
…and then for some (no doubt Clinton-, Obama-, or Biden-appointed “Judge”) to reduce the unnecessarily lenient and merciful 40-year sentence to a mere 14 years, instead of increasing it to Death by hanging or by firing squad…the longstanding, traditional punishment for his crime….?
Of course, John Walker Lindh was also rescued from roasting to death in a locked cargo container under the hot sun in Afghanistan (where he should have been left until it was opened after a month or two, or a year), was never tried and sentenced for Treason, and is now a free man, now again, here in America.
Just one simple Question for those who disagree with my Viewpoint: What, exactly, do you think is a severe-enough punishment for these two?…
More than the sentences of prison handed-down to a 75-year-old grandmother who took a “selfie” of herself with a Capitol Police officer’s arms fondly around her shoulders on 1/6/2021, or a “Pro-Lifer” silently praying The Rosary on the sidewalk across the street from an abortion clinic?
Or these literal Traitors?
You tell me.
Meccah Cole, joins the ranks of infamous Hanoi Jane,
14 years of hard labor might knock some sense into this guy and with it some real repentance.
Two observations,
The FBI is supposed to do a thorough background check including social media.. In a sane world he would never have gotten into the military.
The fact that the court knew of his activities, the question arises.. Why didn’t he get the death penalty? There is certainly enough evidence and he seems to be quite chatty. Barring the death penalty life seems appropriate.
At the very least give him his wish of 40 yrs.
14yrs, Why not parole and community service? It makes just as much sense.