It’s a shame anytime violence has to be used, but it had to happen and it did when bombs were dropped Monday on ISIS areas in Syria.
Those vicious thugs, who claim to be “religious,” are nothing but marauding barbarians indulging in the most hideous crimes imaginable, including the beheading of hostages. They have perpetrated every kind of murderous outrage, such as burying people alive, making people dig their own graves before shooting them dead, abducting and raping women, torture and even human crucifixions. Their victims are anybody who doesn’t happen to believe in their Sunni form of Islam. They have brutally killed captured Iraqi soldiers, Shia Muslims, Christians and even women and children, apparently for a deranged “kick” just to amp up their viciousness.
How can civilized countries deal with such fiends? Negotiations, of course, are out of the question. Diplomacy, to them, is a joke. Apparently, the only thing that will get their attention is violence.
Thankfully, President Barak Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry have succeeded in convincing five Arab countries and several European ones to join the United States in condemning the tactics of ISIS. Those allies have made promises – although rather vague promises – of helping stamp out this truly vicious, dangerous group. And it’s about time. For too long, Arab countries – most notably Saudi Arabia – have sat on the fence or turned their heads when extremist so-called Muslims conducted their rampages of murder and worldwide terrorism. The United States and European countries will never degrade or destroy these evil organizations without help and loud, constant condemnations from Arab nations. Therefore, let us hope this new alliance grows ever stronger.
One of the lessons we were to have learned from the Holocaust during World War II is “Never again!” We learned – we are supposed to have learned – how important it is to speak up, to shout, to condemn acts of violence against innocents and to oppose evil tactics wherever we find them. It’s a lesson we haven’t learned very well, and it’s a lesson these terrorist groups, obviously, never intend to learn.
What’s needed are troops on the ground to defeat ISIS – troops from Iraq, rebels in Syria and hopefully soldiers from other countries in that area. Not American troops. Our military men and women have paid their dues many times over serving on the grounds of that region. Enough is enough.
In the meantime, tactical bombing will get the attention of the ISIS butchers. Other terrorist groups are paying attention, too. The lesson they’ve got to learn, since they are incapable of learning any other kind of lesson, is that they won’t get away with their baseless savagery. The civilized world simply cannot put up with it. And as their sick and twisted videos prove, ISIS members’ acts of violence will be their own undoing.
