Lessons Still Not Learned

For two decades now, many conservatives have warned that America's foreign policy elites at the State Department and the Pentagon fundamentally do not understand the religious motivations of our enemy. 

The leaders of both institutions have graduated from our elite universities, all dominated by left-wing secularism. They cannot understand the concept that millions of people are willing to die for Allah, who they believe they has given them a religious obligation to kill infidels. 

Even after 9/11, we were told this was "a war on terror," instead of a war on radical Islam, Islamic supremacy or Islamic extremism, however you want to phrase it. And while we can acknowledge that this in fact a war against Islamic supremacy, we can also acknowledge that there are millions of Muslims who want freedom, and who can be allies in the war against the Islamist barbarians.

But as I have noted, terrorism is an illegal method of warfare. It is not an enemy. It is a tactic of our Islamist enemy. It would be like declaring war on kamikazes instead of declaring war on Japan, or declaring war on blitzkriegs instead of declaring war on Nazi Germany. 

If you can't identify your enemy, you can't defeat your enemy.

After 9/11, many Americans answered the call of our country and volunteered to serve in the military. What we largely ignored is that hundreds of thousands of Muslims all over the world, including here in the United States, also rushed to the banner of the jihadists. 

They saw in 9/11 that the day of the West's demise was approaching. In the years that followed, we did much to disabuse them of that belief. We drove Al Qaeda out of their safe haven in Afghanistan. We eliminated Osama bin Laden. We crushed the ISIS caliphate. 

But what Joe Biden has presided over in the last 96 hours has erased much of that progress. This is a disaster that will continue bearing bitter fruit.

Meanwhile, at this very moment, the Biden Administration is negotiating with the greatest supporter of Islamic terrorism in the entire world – the Islamic Republic of Iran. They are undermining sanctions against Iran so the ayatollah can send even more money to Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad. How does that make any sense?