ISIS Beheading Of James Foley Shows 'Absolute Evil'

by JASmius

The defeat of the Islamic State that might have been:

"We really did get a chance yesterday to look at absolute evil in its face. It's a reminder of what it is we're dealing with here in the Middle East," said Hayden, a retired Air Force general and former director of the Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency.

The rise of IS came from "pre-existing pathologies within the Middle East," rather than the result of U.S. foreign policy, Hayden said. He outlined a three-step plan for how the United States could arrest the advance of the militant organization.

The first step would be to "decapitate — to try to take its leadership off the battlefield," Hayden said. The next step would be to deny IS a "safe haven." The third step, which he said would be the "most difficult task," would be to "change the facts on the ground."

"How do we change the facts on the ground? If we prevent the creation of these kinds of people, this kind of an organization, that's a long-term project, and one that, frankly, will be very difficult for us to do," he said.

It would be "very difficult for us to do" for the very reasons that we've seen for the past decade: It requires a long-term commitment to what amounts to a permanent occupation, or at least one long enough to ensure that the local culture becomes thoroughly Westernized - think post World War II Germany and Japan - something for which the American people simply do not have either the patience or the stomach.  That leaves the other step #3: annihilation.  Given that this is a clash of civilizations - or rather, a clash between civilization and irredeemable, demonic barbarism - and our Islamic enemies are unalterably determined to dominate and eradicate us, logic dictates that our survival requires doing it to them before they can do it to us.  I'll leave the details-filling-in to your imaginations, but it is beyond obvious that if the American public didn't have the stomach for a small asymmetrical conflict in Iraq, they sure as shinola wouldn't be able to come to grips with the us-or-them reality of wiping out the Muslim world wholesale.

At least until after several U.S. cities have gone up in mushroom clouds, chemical mists, or plagues.  At which time it will, of course, be too late.

But you can't say you weren't warned.