How many times do we have to learn the same lessons? Evil cannot be appeased, and the effort to do so leads invariably to death and heartbreak.
Don’t believe me? Ask the Jewish people.
The history of World War II is by now too well known to repeat. A Europe that was desperate to avoid repeating the horrors of World War I (then known as the Great War and the War to end all Wars) refused to believe that Hitler presented an existential threat to peace and democracy, preferring to believe he could be negotiated with, boxed in, and contained.
Right the historical wrongs, grant him the territorial gains he demanded, and there would be “peace in our time.” But instead of the promised peace, there was death on a scale the world had never seen.
And no one suffered more than the Jews.
Fast-forward just a few years to 1948. The world, shocked by the Holocaust, finally facilitated the immigration of an ever-larger number of Jews to their ancestral homeland, Israel. There the Jewish people could carve out their own state, protect themselves from genocide, and—finally—have a land to call home.
But then the world washed its hands of the problem, largely leaving the Jews of Israel to fend for themselves when, just three years after the end of World War II, Arab armies massed to destroy the brand-new Jewish state. As the young Israeli state fought armies equipped with modern weapons with the scraps they could beg for, borrow, and steal, the Arab countries launched a systematic and massive ethnic cleansing of Jews within their borders:
It is, sadly, a little-known fact that almost a million Jews lived in Arab countries when Israel declared independence in 1948. Now, there are less than 10,000. To take a few examples, 250,000 lived in Morocco, 140,000 in Iraq, 80,000 in Egypt, 140,000 in Algeria, and roughly 50,000 in Yemen. But now? 3,000 in Morocco, 100 in Iraq, 100 in Egypt, none in Algeria, and only a few hundred in Yemen. This [was] ethnic cleansing on a grand scale.1
How did this happen? The typical way:
Jews were shot, homes were burned (sometimes in front of cheering crowds), and governments confiscated their property. Anti-Semitic mobs surged through streets, and the Jews fled, often airlifted to Israel as they left the homes of their fathers (and their fathers’ fathers) behind.2
A world weary of war refused to confront jihadists and Arab nationalists who had not yet begun to fight. Only Israel’s fierce resolve prevented yet another genocide, a genocide only three years after the Holocaust—only three years after the world promised “never again.”
In the United States we thankfully don’t have a history of genocide, but we do have a recent history of failed appeasement.
During Bill Clinton’s presidency, the Palestinian terrorist Yasser Arafat was invited to spend more time in the White House than any other foreign leader—thirteen invitations.3 Clinton was dead set on helping the Israelis and Palestinians achieve a lasting peace. He pushed the Israelis to grant ever-greater concessions until the Israelis were willing to grant the Palestinians up to 98 percent of all the territory they requested.
And what was the Palestinian response? They walked away from the bargaining table and launched the wave of suicide bombings and other terrorist attacks known as the Second Intifada.
And what of Osama bin Laden? Even while America was granting concessions to Palestinians—and thereby theoretically easing the conditions that provided much of the pretext for Muslim terror—bin Laden was bombing U.S. embassies in Africa, almost sank the USS Cole in Yemen, and was well into the planning stages of the catastrophic attacks of September 11, 2001.
After President George W. Bush ordered U.S. forces to invade Afghanistan and Iraq in 2001 and 2003, respectively, bringing American troops into direct ground combat with jihadists half a world away, many Americans quickly forgot the recent past and blamed American acts of self-defense for “inflaming” jihad.
One of those Americans was Barack Obama.
Soon after his election, Obama traveled to Cairo, Egypt, where he delivered a now-infamous speech that signaled America’s massive policy shifts. The United States pulled entirely out of Iraq despite the pleas of “all the major Iraqi parties.”4
In Egypt, the United States actually backed the Muslim Brotherhood government, going so far as agreeing to give it advanced F-16 fighters and M1 Abrams main battle tanks, even as the Muslim Brotherhood government was violating its peace treaty with Israel and persecuting Egypt’s ancient Coptic Christian community. The Obama administration continued supporting the Brotherhood, even when it stood aside and allowed jihadists to storm the American embassy, raising the black flag of jihad over an American diplomatic facility.
In Libya, the United States persuaded its allies to come to the aid of a motley group of rebels, including jihadists. Then many of these same jihadists promptly turned their anger on the United States, attacking our diplomatic compound in Benghazi the afternoon and evening of September 11, 2012—killing the American ambassador and three more brave Americans.
Compounding this disaster, the administration had steadfastly refused to reinforce the American security presence in spite of a deteriorating security situation, afraid that it would anger the local population. This naïve and foolish administration decision cost American lives.
During the most recent conflict between Hamas and Israel, the administration consistently rebuffed both Israel and Egypt, preferring instead to advance proposals that empowered Hamas’s most staunch allies—Qatar and Turkey. This action not only undermined Israel but also—ironically enough—undermined Egypt as well as every other Palestinian group that had chosen not to join the latest round of fighting.
In other words, the Obama administration rewarded Hamas for its terrorist violence.
Even when the crisis in Iraq became so grave that tens of thousands of Christians and Yazidis faced imminent massacre, the Obama administration’s military response was feeble. It consisted of pinprick attacks combined with a promise that ISIS had nothing to fear over the long run from the United States. The Obama administration emphatically emphasized, “This is not the authorization of a broad-based counterterrorism campaign against [ISIS].”5
And as it made these declarations, it still refused to provide our Kurdish allies with the heavy weapons they needed to repel an ISIS invasion.
In other words, the Obama administration rewarded Hamas for its terrorist violence.
Again and again, President Obama appeased jihadists.
In the meantime, the jihadists only grew stronger and more dangerous, contemptuous of the United States.
But when it comes to jihad, America must oppose, not appease.
How can it oppose jihad? Does it necessarily have to engage in indefinite ground combat in the Middle East? Do we confront even more frustrating “nation building”?
At this time, we do not believe large-scale ground combat is necessary to battle the latest wave of jihad. In Iraq, we have willing allies, much stronger allies than we had at the time of the 2003 invasion. And Israel has more than enough military strength to repel attacks on its homeland; it needs only American support to resist crushing international pressure to stand down in the face of jihad, pressure that always allows jihadists to ultimately live to fight another day.
In fact, the Kurds possess the numbers and will to drive ISIS back and inflict severe losses on the jihadists.
First, America must commit to destroying ISIS, not just “managing” it or limiting its influence. To do so, we must support our true allies with arms, equipment, military advisers, and—if necessary—military power. Presently, the Kurds possess the fighters and will to defend Kurdistan and protect the thousands of Christians and others who have sought refuge there. In fact, the Kurds possess the numbers and will to drive ISIS back and inflict severe losses on the jihadists.
They do not, however, possess the weapons they need. There is no excuse for this failure. There is no excuse for abandoning friends in need. The message we’re sending to the Muslim world is intolerable—that the world’s largest military power will not lift a finger to protect its friends. Nothing drives recruits to jihadists faster than the idea that they are strong while America and its allies are weak.
It is time for America to make its allies strong and demonstrate that jihadists are weak. It is imperative that jihadists face strong Muslim opposition. And it is that very need that makes the Obama administration’s reluctance to support proven Muslim allies—like the new Egyptian regime and the Kurds—most puzzling. Yet, at the same time, the administration seems all too willing to support unproven “moderates” in Syria, or even forces that have proven to be nothing but unreliable, hostile jihadists. We don’t “win” if we defeat ISIS but only end up empowering the jihadists of Iran or competing Sunni jihadists.
Why abandon our allies while empowering potential enemies? The Obama administration has consistently overestimated its ability to “win over” the Muslim Brotherhood or other jihadist organizations. And in trying to win them over, it harms our true allies again and again. This strategy was misguided from the start, and it is now nothing short of foolish after more than five years of consistent and deadly failure. And if President Obama persists in this folly, Congress must do all that it can to end any American funding for jihad.
Further, when supporting our allies we cannot and must not begin by placing explicit limits on the use of our own military power. We must commit to fight to win, and beginning any military effort by announcing explicit limits on our use of force or announcing explicit limits on the length of our commitment merely provides the enemy with a roadmap to victory. While large-scale ground combat may not be necessary, we cannot lead our enemy to believe that he will never face American troops.
Second, outside of Iraq and Syria, America must send a clear message to the Palestinian Authority: it will not get one dime of American taxpayer money while it has any formal or informal ties with Hamas. America will not support jihad anywhere, including in Palestine. Even further, America will not support any easing of the blockade of Gaza until Hamas is removed from power and the Gaza Strip is demilitarized, and it will fully support Israel’s acts of self-defense, including by defending Israel in the U.N. and from any effort by any Western power to impose any kind of economic sanctions or arms embargos on Israel.
Third, America must signal its zero tolerance for jihadists by investigating U.N. ties to terrorists, including the U.N.’s inexcusable actions in Gaza, such as allowing Hamas to store rockets in U.N. buildings, booby-trap U.N. facilities, and build terror tunnels from U.N. structures. It should end any American support or funding for any U.N. or other international entity that collaborates with or aids and abets terror.
Fourth, America must not treat Afghanistan like Iraq and abandon it to jihad. We understand that Americans are weary of war, but our enemies are not. Wars do not end when we grow tired of fighting them. They end when our enemies are defeated.
Americans are weary of war, but our enemies are not. Wars do not end when we grow tired of fighting them. They end when our enemies are defeated.
You will notice a consistent theme in all these points: unwavering strength. While jihad has flared off and on again throughout Muslim history, that same history tells us that when it is dealt a decisive defeat, it can lie dormant for decades. Jihad thrives on victory, not defeat, and it spreads when it is seen to be strong. Expose its weakness, grind its forces into dust, and the jihadist impulse wanes dramatically.
When confronting the pure evil of jihad, our allies do not need to be just like us. They do, however, need to be allies—capable of defeating our enemies and protecting the most basic human rights of their citizens. We cannot be sidetracked into trying to make everything perfect. Much American blood and treasure has been spilled trying to transform Iraq and Afghanistan into modern democracies. Let’s settle for strong allies first, and worry about perfecting political systems later. We can defeat jihad. We’ve done it before.
In Iraq in 2005 and 2006, the situation in many ways was even more bleak than it is today. The entire nation of Iraq was coming apart at the seams, with combat raging not just in the north but across the length and breadth of the entire nation. Shiite militias ruled in the south, Sunni militias ruled parts of the west, north, and east. Baghdad was a killing zone.
And we had no effective allies on the ground.
But America responded. Men and women volunteered to fight, then volunteered to fight again. We built up local allies, equipped them, and motivated them to stand their ground. We became, in the words of military historian Bing West, “the strongest tribe” in Iraq.6
On November 22, 2007, one of my coauthors, David French, flew into a small forward operating base in Diyala Province, Iraq, in a CH-47 helicopter. He and his unit flew because AQI (the forerunner to ISIS) controlled the roads leading into and out of their base. Had they driven, they would have been attacked by terrorists, and men likely would have died.
After almost a year of hard fighting and coalition building, his unit left that base, and this time they drove. AQI was gone, our Iraqi allies controlled the roads, and formerly devastated villages were springing back to life.
The jihadists were not invincible. They could be beaten. It just took courage and will.
Every time I fly into Israel, I’m moved by what I see. Israel is a beautiful land, where the desert has literally bloomed. As my plane comes in for a landing, I can see out my window row after row of beautiful houses where there used to be battlefields. In some places, farms stretch out as far as the eye can see, growing some of the most delicious fruit in the world.
I’m reminded that every single square inch of that land has been fought for against overwhelming odds. Every single square inch has been protected and reclaimed from those who tried—again and again—to finish what Hitler started.
The jihadists were not invincible. They could be beaten. It just took Israeli courage and will.
In New York, the Freedom Tower is finally nearing completion. This massive skyscraper, taller than the lost towers of the World Trade Center, stands as a symbol of American strength. Knock us down, and we rebuild—taller, stronger, better. But while we can build buildings, sometimes the human heart can be more fragile. After thirteen years of war, do we still have the will? Our enemy certainly does. They are remorseless and savage, feeding on our weakness.
But they are not invincible. They can be beaten. It will just take American courage and American will.