Let’s be honest—there are times when we enjoy saying “I told you so.” Perhaps someone we didn’t like very much publicly disagreed with us. Perhaps they even ridiculed us to our friends. It’s gratifying when events prove we were right and they were wrong.
But there are other times when we wish we had been wrong—when our correct analysis of events means that our world—yours and mine—is going to be diminished in some way. We’re going to be less safe, or less prosperous, or have fewer reasons to be happy. This is one of those times.
Less than three months ago I published No. 15 in this series, which I titled “A Policy of Defeat.” In it I described how in 1950 our liberal government surrendered our military sovereignty to the United Nations and began to expend U.S. blood and treasure pursuing a goal that history has proved is unachievable—peace with honor. Since then, more than 88,000 Americans have died, countless tens of thousands have been wounded and crippled, and uncounted trillions of dollars have been spent—and to what end? Eighteen truces or U.S. defeats. Not one single victory. Not one.
In July of 2009, just six months after being sworn in as President of the United States, Barak Obama stated in a TV interview that he believed unequivocally in the UN concept of offering adversaries “peace with honor.” He said he wasn’t comfortable with the concept of victory, because it meant someone had to suffer the humiliation of defeat.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/07/23/obama-victory-necessarily-goal-afghanistan/
Today the U.S. is facing the most serious threat we have faced in our 238-year history. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, ISIS, is a large, well-organized, well-funded, and well-trained Islamic militant group. They have publicly declared war on the United States and vowed to destroy us. To fan the flames of war, they are kidnapping American citizens and beheading them on international TV.
And what has our President, our Commander-in-Chief, the man who has twice taken an oath to protect and defend this nation, done about it? Nothing. He has made it clear that he considers the Islamic State to be nothing more than a “junior varsity team.” As I write this he is in Europe trying to put together an “international coalition” to “manage” ISIS.
In case you’re not familiar with the term—the phrase “international coalition” is diplomat-speak for, “Hey, guys, y’all have to share the responsibility for this. If something goes wrong I’m not gonna take all the blame myself.”
So what does he mean when he says he wants to “manage” ISIS? Well, we know he doesn’t want to subject them to the humiliation of defeat. He certainly doesn’t intend to take Ted Cruz’s advice and “bomb them back to the stone age.” What he wants to do is persuade them to accept peace with honor. Y’all stop killing Syrians and Iraqis and Americans, we’ll give you a few billion a year in foreign aid, and we’ll all be happy.
In 1812, the British troops had to sail three long, hard months across the North Atlantic to come here and fight us. Even as recently as WW2, the Germans or Japanese couldn’t have landed a significant number of troops on our shores in less than a month, and we would have had plenty of notice they were coming.
Today there are thousands of airline flights arriving in the U.S. every day, from dozens of foreign countries. If just half of those flights, or even a third, carried one or two Islamic State terrorists, in a month’s time they could have many thousands of their people among us.
It wouldn’t be difficult to do, because their passports would be from nations that are friendly to us—England, Spain, Germany, Norway. Some of them would be U.S. passports, because the people would have been born and raised in America.
They won’t be on any “no fly” list. They will be trained in all manner of terrorist tactics. Worst of all, they will be fanatics who believe that the greatest honor they can achieve is to die while making war on the infidels. And we won’t know they’re here until our airports and train stations start blowing up, and gangs of gunmen start shooting up our shopping malls.
Since 1950 the UN/US policy of “peace with honor” has resulted in eighteen truces or defeats for the United States. The Islamic State isn’t going to accept a truce. They believe Allah wants them to conquer the world and convert the world’s inhabitants to Islam—or kill them.
Unless we destroy the Islamic State, they will destroy us. There is no third alternative.
One of my historical heroes, Gen. George S. Patton, when presented with an obviously stupid solution to a very real problem, was known to shake his head and mutter, “God help us!” When I hear that Barak Obama wants to “manage” the Islamic State, all I can do is shake my head and say, “God help us!”