Naivete'

The image was striking. A line of military top brass. All decked out in their finest bib-and-tucker uniforms sporting more "I was there" ribbons than a cruise ship full of tourists. It was reminiscent of the reviewing stand at the Kremlin for their May Day parade.

And out in front, at the microphone, was their leader, Barack Obama, the President of the United States. Once again, he announced to the world, "we will never be at war with Islam". Well, that is all right Mr. Obama, Islam is at war with us. Maybe not all of it, but extremely large chunks of it are willing to do anything, including martyring themselves, to destroy us.

Then our leader explained that you don't "defeat an ideology with guns, you defeat them with better ideas".  Given the American experience, starting with our own Revolution and through two world wars and beyond, that statement in unbelievably naive. Then to state that those professional military men behind you, agree wholeheartedly, just doubles down into the realm of irrational.

Those men agree with you because they want to keep their jobs. Some, because they know that their skill and training will be valued and needed at some point. Others just because they have no wish to find another line of work. I will guarantee that none of those men think that the bloodthirsty monsters of ISIS or any other of the radical jihadis or even those that quietly support them, will be persuaded by ideas.

Those that hate us and wish to destroy us, call us "the Great Satan". I guess that would make our President the modern iteration of Beelzebub. Their charter is the Quran. A book that they believe is the holy word of Allah presented to the Prophet in the seventh century. They worship this book as literally true, blessed, and immutable. These are the words that Islam has lived by for fourteen hundred year.

Along comes Barack Obama. A man trained in the law at Ivy League schools, with no real world experience, and a few short years in the political arena. A man with the ego to think that he can present ideas that will stop billions of true believers in their tracks. The scales will then fall from their eyes and these inbred and strongly held beliefs will alter. And the lion will lie down with the lamb.

What then, Mr. Obama? A stroll across the reflecting pool. Change some water into wine. Find a few lepers to cure. No matter what else he has done or will do, that little bit of business at the Pentagon will seal his legacy forever as the President that never understood the words "preserve, protect, and defend".