Islamic State Juggernaut

The Islamic State (IS) is now encroaching the border between Syria and Turkey. The primary reason that this murderous terrorist group has enjoyed so much military success is the pronounced lack of will by the West to do what is necessary to stop IS. IS has no navy to project power, no air force to deny opponents air supremacy, and only heavy weapons captured in the field from defeated Syrian government forces and the hapless Iraqis that America trained and armed. The most notable aspect of IS tactics is their medieval brutality, slaughtering virtually every combatant they capture and killing any civilians who do not tow the Sunni Wahhab line. Teddy Roosevelt or Ronald Reagan or Winston Churchill would have already stopped these atavists were they alive and in power today. Our risk-averse Western leaders led from behind by Obama are committing some resources to conduct limited airstrikes on Islamic State forces. Not a carpet bombing campaign, but pinprick strikes against an IS vehicle here or there is mostly what Western defense ministers and Obama's pet commanders are willing to do to thwart a force determined to create a new caliphate. This profound abdication of leadership amounts to more than a lack of will to prevail. It indicates that the "forces of civilization" today lack the determination to protect their own citizenry and even the wisdom necessary for self-preservation. Those guarding harems have more backbone than the eunuchs leading the West to our own destruction at the hands of seventh century throwbacks who do not have the technical knowledge to keep the smallest NATO member nation's air force flying for a single day. To have so much military power as the West but a reticence to use it in self-defense is more than a shame. It is cowardice that amounts to a suicidal act.