Osama is Dead, But...

We celebrate today, the demise of Osama Bin Laden, and we thank God for the courageous men and women of our armed forces who brought us this victory. However, as I said several years ago, this is just one more battle in a fifty-year war against an ideology bent on the destruction of the West. Islamofacists are warring against liberty. They will never stop until they win, or they die trying.

The typical conventions of war do not apply to a people whose identity is caught up in the destruction of Israel and the West. This is their reason for living, and for dying. They sincerely believe that killing, and even dying for “Allah” is a good and noble thing. This mindset places them beyond the limits of reasonable discourse. Any talk of peace or cease-fire is nothing more than a strategic move on their part to rebuild and regain strength for the war that must be fought to the finish.

We must understand that this is like no other war we have ever fought. This is a war of ideologies. It will never be won until the next generation of future Jihadists is won over by the ideas of freedom and democracy. We are looking at no less than a fifty-year war to change the minds and hearts of millions of people. I question whether or not it can be done, but we must try, or succumb to tyranny. In times past, presidents have spoken clearly when explaining why we fight, that we were defending our liberty and our religion. Yes, the religion of Christianity in all its various expressions. They understood that liberty and Christianity are inseparable.

We will never win this war with bullets alone. We must win the hearts of the next generation while we neutralize their fathers who would rather die warring against the West than talk peace with “The Great Satan.” If they choose to die, then we must help them do so before they kill us. Then we must teach the principles of democracy, and the blessings of liberty to their children, if there is to be any chance of real peace for coming generations.

There must be no talk of “proportionate response.” This is not a game where “You take my pawn; I’ll take yours. “ No. This is war. The only acceptable proportionate response is the total neutralization of terrorist forces around the globe. Until then -and I am convinced it will be for no less than fifty years- we must continue to fight and support our allies, particularly Israel, relentlessly. The next generation of free people depends on no less.