There’s Only a Military Solution

The New York Post hosts the column of military strategist Ralph Peters, who often cuts through the fog and says what we're thinking. Today he writes about the feigned sorrow over two Western hostages, held by radicals, killed in a drone strike in Pakistan.

Sorry, folks. That’s war. And warfare will never be dainty or fully precise. (snip) We may regret the loss of an American and an Italian aid worker, but they’d voluntarily placed themselves in danger. And actions have consequences.

We cannot cripple our counter-terror campaign on the bare chance that a hostage might be co-located with a master terrorist. The war fanatics have forced upon us a zero-sum game: We kill them, or they kill us. And delay is defeat.

We are besieged by human beasts who believe their god wants us to suffer, then die horribly. They’re not interested in debating fine points of theology or discussing development programs. They want to kill us.

Contrary to the blather from the left that “there’s no military solution” to global jihad, the cold fact is that there’s only a military solution — and it will take a great deal of time and bloodshed.

Two millennia of apocalyptic and messianic insurgencies around the world demonstrate — without exception — that killing faith-addled fanatics is the only approach that works.

Peters echoes Spengler on this subject, COTTonLINE concurs.