"Without a proper sense of urgency, we will be eventually defeated, dominated and very likely destroyed," wrote former Gen. Michael Flynn, U.S. President Donald Trump's national security adviser, last year. "They are dead set on taking us over and drinking our blood."

It's so early in the new year that nominations for Year's Most Ridiculous Statement are not even officially open yet, but this has to be a strong contender. Flynn was talking, believe it or not, about the "Islamic terrorist threat."

He was predicting that the United States, despite having the world's biggest economy, 325 million people, the world's most advanced technology, and more than 4,000 nuclear weapons, faces defeat, domination and probably destruction at the hands of 10,000 to 20,000 Islamist terrorists — unless, presumably, it gets serious and starts torturing people again.