The San Bernardino rampage has far worse implications for the United States because it proves the effectiveness of the Islamic State's social media campaign, retired Army Col. Patrick Murray told
Newsmax TV on Friday.
"ISIS doesn't have to lift a hand beyond the social-networking organization that they have going on to inspire these radical Islamist terrorists to conduct these mass murders," Murray told "Newsmax Prime" host John Bachman.
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He noted that one of the dead suspects, Tashfeen Malik, 27, "did pledge her loyalty to ISIS just minutes before she went in and cold-bloodedly gunned down coworkers of her husband."
The repercussions are even more dire after disclosures by authorities that Malik passed Department of Homeland Security background checks, Murray said.
"That tells me that there are a lot of loopholes out there," he told Bachman. "We don't have a database for the Syrians."
"We have empathy for Syrian refugees, but we also have a government in that we elect officials who are supposed to defend the homeland, provide for the common defense."
"That's not happening," Murray said. "I would go back and relook this whole Syrian refugee thing before we start opening the floodgates."