Can Americans please tell me what is going on?

After the near catastrophe of Flight 253 the President of the United Stales was given a second chance. He blew it. In his speech he said almost nothing new. Same methods that have failed already. He talked about violent extremists. Who are these violent extremists?  Buddhists? Jainists?

Looking at the US from my vantage point in Israel I observe what is happening in the US and I do not get it.  What is going on?  I see chaos at Newark Airport, I read about  security guards frisking Bret Stephens's children age six, four and four months on the US bound flight from Brussels. People are worried. Americans seem disoriented.

But how can the US fight the problem when it still does not want to admit what the problem is? How come the Jerusalem Post is the only world main stream media newspaper which openly asks the West to name the enemy.

I do not understand because this is not some remote problem in a far away country. It directly impacts all Americans now. Millions travel. Failure to react might cost them their lives. And yet they apparently are not concerned enough to demand more. Why aren't they? Is it ignorance of the magnitude or the nature of the threat? What is it?   

Daniel Pipes has a chilling scenario on his site today:

What if a very large group of hijackers gets on a plane, enough of them so that with muscle alone - no knives, guns, or bombs - they overpower the passengers and crew? What if they threaten the pilots to strangle one person after another until the plane comes under their control? No amount of technology can prevent such a scenario; only scrutiny of who is getting aboard can do so.