The real world is not that of Joe Biden and the Democrats

Al Qaeda weighs in

Vice President Joe Biden got a lot of mileage last year out of the slogan “Osama bin Laden is dead, and General Motors is alive.” The truth today, though, is that Detroit is barely hanging on by its fingertips — and al Qaeda is very much alive.

Just look at the latest security warnings of terrorist plots that were just issued. The plots are believed to be the work of the Yemen-based group Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and they’ve led the State Department to put out a global travel warning and to shut 21 US embassies in the Middle East, Asia and Africa for the weekend.

This comes on the heels of mass prison breakouts in recent days in areas where President Obama has been reluctant to project a US presence. Well-planned attacks on prisons by an al Qaeda-linked group in Iraq, from which US forces were withdrawn in 2011, managed to set some 500 prisoners there free. A similar offensive by Taliban militants in Pakistan led to the escape of some 250 prisoners. In Benghazi, more than 1,000 inmates got away — though the circumstances of their release were not immediately clear.

Feeling safer yet?

This only reinforces the point we made yesterday: There is a real price to be paid when America’s enemies do not fear the consequences of opposing this country and when Washington tries to retreat from the world stage.

Remember, it was just last May that Obama essentially declared the War on Terror over: “We ended the war in Iraq,” Obama said. “We pursued a new strategy in Afghanistan.” He claimed America’s standing in the world was stronger — and “we are safer because of our efforts.”

Islamist extremists apparently haven’t gotten the memo.