Alfonse D'Amato

More terrorism as we headed to the GOP Convention

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The announcement we’d all been waiting for — who would join Donald Trump in his campaign to be the country’s next president — was overshadowed by yet another senseless terrorist attack, this one in Nice, France. More than 80 people were killed when a Franco-Tunisian drove a cargo truck full of grenades and other weapons into a crowd of people celebrating Bastille Day.

We’re way beyond the point of wake-up calls and warning flags. It is absolutely indisputable that we are at war against Islamic terrorism, and we must start fighting back.

The attack occurred just hours after French President Francois Hollande announced that he was lifting the state of emergency the country had operated under since the attack in Paris last November. Under the state of emergency, the government had expanded its powers to investigate suspected terrorists. Many civil libertarians criticized these policies, but now it is clear that they didn’t go far enough.

According to an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, Paris alone has 10,000 people on the terror watch list, but not enough agents to monitor them. The situation is similar in the U.S. and around the world. The U.S. and our allies must protect ourselves by doing better spying. Gun control would not have stopped this attack. Instead, we must do a better job of identifying potential terrorists and then watching them closely, learning who their counterparts are and their resources.

This is difficult when there is so much unrest. Militant factions in Turkey staged a coup attempt to overthrow the government. It was thwarted, but not before more than 200 people were killed. The discontent had been brewing for a number of months. Turkey is one of our allies, and plays a key role in our coalition to fight ISIS. President Obama was correct in his response to urge all factions in Turkey to support the democratically elected government.

The unrest isn’t just international. FBI Director Jim Comey has confirmed that the agency has hundreds of agents deployed in Cleveland for this week’s Republican National Convention.

Many were still wondering this week if the Republican establishment would attempt to steal the nomination from Donald Trump. I was set to be a delegate at the convention, and planned to vote for Trump and to be sure there was no Republican coup. It was unbelievable that any of the former Republican candidates or the Romneys of the world still wanted to stop Trump.

The chaos inside the convention center I can handle, but as the week began I was very concerned about whether Cleveland could handle the number of protesters that seemed sure to show up. There is a history of fights and riots outside Trump events. When you couple that with the tumult in other parts of the country after the recent police shootings and the tragedies in Dallas and Baton Rouge, it is a recipe for violence.

Most of the protesters are degenerates who don’t give a damn about this country and our prosperity. These types of desperado groups are capable of creating disasters — we saw this recently in California, where protesters blocked the streets and destroyed police vehicles and property.

Cleveland is in an open-carry state, and guns were to be allowed in certain zones outside the immediate perimeter of the Quicken Loans Arena. Several groups that were there to protest publicly stated that they would have firearms out in the open. I believe this does nothing but add tension to a potentially turbulent event. This is a time when I believe security must trump constitutional rights in order for peace and order to be maintained.

Lastly, Trump’s running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, is a solid choice, and I believe he will help Trump unite the party. Conservatives are solidly behind Pence — he checks a lot of their boxes — and his conservative credentials will help round out Trump’s candidacy.

Ignore the national polls. If you take a serious look at polls in the battleground states, Trump and Hillary Clinton are neck and neck. Clinton has taken some hits in the polls recently after Comey released his report regarding her email scandal. This is an election that Trump can win. Next week, I’ll report from Cleveland.

Al D’Amato, a former U.S. senator from New York, is the founder of Park Strategies LLC, a public policy and business development firm. Comments about this column? ADAmato@liherald.com.