I agree Mark. I’m also a member of Set America Free (brought in by Woolsey and Gaffney, et al.). But it will be harder to contain Militant Islamism than it was to contain Communism. The Soviets, evil as they were – and they certainly were – were not irrational. They had something to lose. They were atheists: They didn’t believe in virgins in Heaven or hidden imams returning to Earth.

Of course, Militant Islamism will fail. Of course it isn’t going to modernize any society anywhere. But that is not the goal of the Militant Islamists. Their goal is to burn down our civilization, while convincing as many Muslims as possible that such destruction is good and necessary and creative because a brave, new world will be built atop the wreckage as mosques have been built upon the ruins of synagogues and churches in Jerusalem, Istanbul and many other places.

Of course, the Militant Islamists will fail. But before or after they destroy the West (with more than a little help from self-doubting, self-flagellating Westerners)?