United front needed to defeat Islamic radicals

In the past 80 years the United States and the West defeated several destructive ideologies that threatened the entire world. These ideologies were Japanese Imperialism, fascism, Nazism and communism. We fought World War II and the Cold War to defeat those ideologies.

Now the world is threatened with the ideology of radical Islam which is every bit as dangerous as those previous ideologies. The ideology of radical Islam preaches submission, hate, enslavement, misogyny and world domination all the while masquerading as a religion. It is incompatible with a civilized world.

Back in the 1990s those of us in the military knew the West was at war with radical Islam as evidence by numerous bombings and attacks around the world directed mostly at U.S. interests. It was not until the al Qaeda attacks of 9/11 which killed 3,000 people that the rest of the country discovered we were actually at war.

Initially, after September 2001, the West had great resolve to defeat radical Islamic terrorists and actually took the fight to them as we deployed U.S. and NATO combat forces to Afghanistan and throughout the Middle East.

Now, 15 years later, the West is losing the war mostly because we have lost the political will to defeat the radical terrorists. Not only do we lack the will, our political leaders are refusing to even properly identify the threat. In the past 18 months, over a dozen countries have been attacked by Islamic terrorists. In the United States, we have seen Islamic terrorists attack military recruitment centers, military bases, college campuses, public gatherings, government facilities, and now a nightclub. The attack last week in Orlando was carried out by an homophobic, radical Muslim who pledged his support to ISIS. It shows the radical Islamic ideology is being spread even without direct contact to other terrorists.

With each attack, and as predictable as a sunrise, the president’s response is timid and always the same. Obama claims these attacks have nothing to do with Islam; he insists that Islam is a religion of peace; he has no idea as to a motive for the attack; he gets angry at legal gun owners and he calls for more gun control.

The problem confronting the world is not gun control; it is how to defeat an ideology that wants to kill anyone who does not believe as they do or who will not convert to their ideology. The president is dangerously wrong and is actively doing nothing to defeat radical Islam. His ignorance is threatening the safety and security of the entire nation. The president’s refusal to respond to any of these terrorist attacks only makes them bolder.

One would think that an attack such as Orlando would unite the country. It hasn’t. America is more divided than ever because half the country knows we are at war with an existential threat while the other half refuses to acknowledge the threat, wants to bring more potential terrorists into the country, and wants to take guns out of the hands of law abiding citizens. The United States and the West cannot defeat the Islamic threat if we are divided, and we cannot defeat the threat if the Democratic political leaders refuse to identify the true nature of the threat.

Over the next week or so we will see a number of memorial services, candlelight vigils, balloon releases, flags flown at half staff, Facebook videos of the victims, expressions of compassion and pledges of love over hate. All of these “make nice” gestures will give people the illusion they are doing something positive to defeat radical Islam. They are not. Wishing nice and hoping for peace only make us look weak to these animals.

We defeated the Japanese, the Nazis, and communism by being straight with the American people, by clearly defining the threat, by defining what it would take to defeat the threat, and by having the resolve and the will to do so. We must do the same if we are going to defeat radical Islam. However, to defeat them will require both a military and political component.

The military component must respond to attacks and must take the fight to the enemy. The political component needs to develop a strategy to unify the Muslim world against radical Islam, and it must convince the Muslim world that they must live in peace with other cultures.

Finally, the united West must tell the radical, Muslim world, through words and actions, that if they refuse, their culture will be destroyed the way the Nazis were destroyed. Remember, radical Islam is at war with us and is playing a long game. Refusing to fight them will only result in our defeat.

This story was originally published June 17, 2016 at 9:00 PM with the headline "United front needed to defeat Islamic radicals."