The Foe: Radical Islam

Countries front and center, with much to lose, include Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Jordan. Each of these countries needs to go all-in to annihilate ISIS.

Here Secretary of State John Kerry identifies neither the real foe, nor those specific countries that need to step forward in response to ISIS aggression.

Rather, Kerry writes, “Put simply, we are building a global partnership against violent extremism.”

Why is America building a global partnership in the first place? Radical Shia and Sunni fanatics continue in a religious war that has raged forever. The outcome is of no national security interest to America, nor has it been since the earliest days of George W. Bush’s misguided shock-and-awe strategy in Iraq.

Exactly what has America gained by the endless wars, so wrongly promoted by the military industrial complex, the political elites in Washington and their neocon cheerleaders in the media? It is clear that a majority of Americans believe the answer to be little or nothing.

In terms of transformation and devotion, Mr. Secretary, what we need to do is immediately end immigration from radical Islamist states and deport all radical elements not willing to fully support the Constitution of the United States.

As for charging forward in the name of “decency, civility and reason,” Secretary Kerry, it would appear that the time for a decidedly more hard-line approach has arrived. Perhaps those countries with so much at risk here can take the lead in wiping out a radical Islamic horde that has not the slightest sense of “decency, civility and reason.”

As the NYT’s Thomas Friedman warned, “I am all for restraint on the issue, and would never hold every Muslim accountable for the acts of a few. But it is not good for us or the Muslim world to pretend that this spreading jihadist violence isn’t coming out of their faith community.”