Enough is Enough by Charles Mueller, PhD, Potomac Institute for Policy Studies CReST Fellow
WASHINGTON, July 16, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Radical Islamic terrorism is the most dangerous form of radicalism in the world today. The greater it grows, the longer it persists, the more justification it gives to other forms of radicalism to use violent extremes to get their way. As long as this cancer to a free, fair, and stable global society exists, the justification to kill, rape, and enslave to promote your ideology has a fertile breeding ground to grow. This is not a threat you can deal with passively or subtly. This is a threat you have to treat like all other ideologies that have threatened the ability to live in a free, equal and just society. This threat threatens our survival.
My heart hurts for those in Nice, France today, as well as all those over the years that have been hurt by the evil that radical Islamic terrorism spreads. Yesterday at least 84 people were killed and hundreds were injured when a cowardly terrorist used a semi-truck to bulldoze innocent people celebrating a national holiday, prompting celebration by the radical Islamic terrorist group ISIS. This was a town that promoted western values and had just finished celebrating the French National Day, a day which commemorates the Storming of Bastille, a pivotal moment in the French Revolution that catalyzed a future where the French could be free. And that was probably the point. The radical Islamic ideology despises the ideology celebrated on Bastille Day, one that promotes the concepts of equality and freedom for all. Every time radical Islamic terrorism strikes, be it at night clubs in Orlando, the streets of Paris, or bombings in Istanbul, it reminds us that this ideology only cares about one thing: bringing death to all those that oppose their beliefs and views of the world.
War isn't easy. It isn't supposed to be. Going to war is meant to hurt. War is how societies protect their cultures and ideologies. Radical Islamic terrorists are waging a war on all of us and it is time we fight back. This means treating this threat like we did in 1930's with fascism, in 70's and 80's with communism. This means recognizing that the spread of the ideology of radical Islamic terrorism literally threatens our survival and as such we have to respond in full force to preserve all we've worked to create. We should be using every single weapon we have, from boots on the ground, to cyberwarfare, to economic weapons, etc. in order to destroy this cancer. Yes, going all in means people's children will die and innocent victims will be harmed, but again, war is meant to hurt. We aren't supposed to want to go to war. We are supposed to go to war when there is no other way.
Radical Islamic terrorism is spreading and providing the justifications for other forms of radicalism that threaten freedom and equality for all. The longer we wait to combat this reality, the more it will destroy us, slowly from the inside, just like cancer. You don't cure cancer by talking to it, rationalizing with it, or haphazardly fighting parts of it. You cure cancer by destroying all cancer cells. It is time we get serious about the threat of radical Islamic terrorism and destroy it before it destroys us.
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SOURCE Potomac Institute for Policy Studies
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