So, what's the answer?

French President Francois Hollande says the Friday the 13th terror attacks in Paris were an "act of war." Well, Monsieur le Président, I say bon chance* with that. Firstly, France hasn't won a war since WWI. They didn't win in WW2 - we basically won that for them and the rest of the world. They didn't win in French Indochina (not that we fared much better there) and they didn't win in Algeria.

For one thing, the French military isn't that large - or that strong - like it was in their days of empire. They would need - badly - allied support, big time, to win anything of any size and deployment.

But, most importantly, even if they - or the civilized world starts a war against ISIS - I don't think they or the rest of the non-Muslim world has the fortitude needed to finish it.

A quick look at history is appropriate here. By 1864, America's Civil War was dragging into its 3rd year with no end in sight. America's own Civil War general William Tecumseh Sherman told Union Commander in Chief Grant that as long as the War was a distant reality to the South, the Confederacy was not motivated to end it.His philosophy became "War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over." 

Sherman's infamous fiery and terrifying “March to the Sea” was executed so to frighten the civilian population of Georgia into abandoning the Confederate cause. Sherman was convinced the Confederacy was being kept strong not from its military but from the moral and material of Southern Confederates.

Sherman knew he had to quite literally "fight fire with fire." And the experts in terrorism analysis say we need to do the same here in the 21st century to defeat Islamic terrorism.

For one thing, the naysayers are quick to mention that unlike the Confederacy, unlike the Hun of WW 1 or the Nazis of WW2, Islamic terrorists are not a uniformed military fighting for a centralized national government. Instead they are - like the Viet Minh and Viet Cong of Indochina/Vietnam - by their very nature obscure forces embedded into the very societies of various nations in which they strike - including France and the United States.

However, by their very nature, embedded terrorists rely on the same moral and military support of their surrounding societies and various Middle Eastern countries very much like - even more so - the uniformed armies of the Confederacy did from the civilian population of Georgia.

So, like Sherman did to Georgia, I agree with current US presidential candidate Donald Trump that we should ""bomb the (expletive deleted) out of ISIS."**

Just this morning I got mildly taken to task by a friend who chastised me for saying bombing we should literally carpet bomb the crap out of that part of the world (in the spirit of Sherman's philosophy of bringing the pain to them). Her opinion is that to do that would hurt a lot of the good Muslims who don't agree with the radicals and terrorists.

Like I say, just like in Vietnam we lack the fortitude to do what is necessary to finish it against an enemy like the VC of the 1960s or the Islamic terrorists of today.
But to those who worry about the fate of the "good" but silent people in that part of the world, I say firstly it's long past time for those good but silent people to rise up and turn out the radicals. Those good but silent people and governments need to leave the terrorists and those of like mind with them absolutely no safe havens to hide or train in - not in homes, not in mosques, not in sympathetic countries. Those good but silent people and governments need to go beyond silence or platitudinous statements and make it specifically well-known and very damned well-demonstrated that to support terrorists in any way means pain - death and destruction the likes of which the terrorists bring to US!

We keep on doing it until terrorists have no friendly places to hide, train or do business in. We keep on doing it until every one terrorists turn to and everywhere they run to slams the door in their face and shuts them out in the cold to be captured or killed. And we keep on doing it until this crap completely stops!

If our protection from being gunned down in a concert hall, sidewalk cafe or blown up at a soccer stadium or by a hijacked airliner slamming into our places of business and our national and cultural survival means the pain or death of "good" but silent people and governments then, I'm sorry, but so bloody be it! Some day - probably sooner than later - it's gonna come down to either us or them. And I know which way I'm gonna decide on that one.

Lastly, to those who say we can't "fight fire with fire," I say, then what's your solution? Whatever it is, we better come up with an effective solution and damned quick.



*"good luck"
**Gore, L. (13 Nov., 2015) Donald Trump: "I would bomb the s--- out of ISIS," AL.COM. Retrived 14 Nov., 2015 from http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2015/11/donald_trump_i_would_bomb_the.html