The always-astute Jed Babbin calls out the pusillanimous PC poseurs who determine our “war-fighting” strategy, and explains why we’re losing a battle against a stone-age army of suicidal savages. If you’ve had it with teddy bears and candles, and are culturally predisposed to agree with the late Air Force general Curtis LeMay when he said, “If you kill enough of them, they stop fighting,” read this:

Je suis fed up with the politically correct methods and means of counterterrorism pursued by America and its Western allies. There’s so much of that stupidity controlling what we do, with so many bad policies imposed by President Obama and others of his ilk, it’s no wonder the terrorists are winning. Every time another mass murder occurs, the media’s coverage focuses on the memorials — piles of flowers, rows of candles and hand-drawn signs — and the calls for “unity” and pledges of resolve by national leaders. But all the memorials are totally meaningless. They are merely a stage for politicians to act on, professing emotion, proclaiming unity, and calling for everyone to just keep calm and carry on. Nothing else results from them. President Obama began military action against ISIS in June 2014. Since then ISIS has grown despite the occasional killing of some ISIS leader accomplished by good intelligence work and a drone strike. Not only does ISIS control big chunks of Iraq and Syria, it now controls key portions of Libya as well. ISIS-trained terrorists — and those radicals who don’t bother to travel to ISIS-held lands for training — are a growing menace to us all. Obama’s strategy and tactics were intended, as he said, to degrade and eventually destroy ISIS. They have failed. Obama said last Wednesday that defeating ISIS remained his number one priority. But, he added, there will be no change in strategy. Amazingly stupid.

Maybe not just stupid — it’s an awful thing even to contemplate, but given the philo-Islamism of Barack Hussein Obama (yeah, what’s in a name?) and the proven anti-Americanism of John Kerry, it’s not much of a leap to suggest that they’re fighting a sham war against an “enemy” they’re actually rooting for. So consider it suggested.

What is the root cause of this politically correct cowardice? For that’s what it is. You can call it what you’d like, but the fact is that our government — and those of our supposedly-strong allies in Europe — are too fearful of offending Muslims to do what is necessary… We have been at war with terrorist networks for fifteen years without dealing decisively with them. As I’ve written many times, we haven’t pursued the ideological half of the war. We have to or we can’t win this war. None of our presidential candidates on either side have given evidence that they understand. We can count on Clinton and Sanders to continue the politically correct approach… hard power needs to be undertaken under the authority of — at least — a new authorization for the use of military force without the restraint of the one passed quickly after 9/11. All our tools of war need to be employed against the terrorist networks and the nations that support them. That’s easy to say but hard to do. Allies can be helpful, but we can’t be restrained by their lack of courage and assent. Nous sommes Americans. End the politically correct stupidity. Let’s get on with it.

As long as Washington considers Islamic terrorism to be a law-enforcement matter — rather than the global guerrilla war it has morphed into — we will continue to lose. The Islamic side has openly proclaimed that it is at war against the West (and has been for more than a thousand years) and desires our destruction. How many more innocents must die at the hands of the Incredible Exploding Muslim before the U.S. and Europe get serious about taking the fight to the enemy; that is, to the heart of the Islamic poison itself? As the Winter Soldier himself famously said, “How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?”

Well, how do you ask civilians to die for a war that men like Obama and Kerry won’t fight?