KILLING IS NOT THE ANSWER

USA 24 March 2015. Several days ago a State Department spokesperson asserted that “we cannot kill our way out of this ”, referring to the murderous activities of ISIL and its affiliates. True enough: killing is not the answer. Living is. However, in order to live it is necessary to stop the killers, to destroy the criminals.
 

The gun crews on U.S. Navy ships facing suicidal attacks by Japanese kamikaze pilots knew what they had to do. Marines on Guadalcanal knew what they had to do to stop Japanese banzai attacks. American air crews knew what they had to do when faced with suicidal Luftwaffe pilots committed to ramming U.S. bombers. G.I.s in Korea knew what they had to do when hordes of Chinese soldiers attacked them at places like the Chosin Reservoir and Pork Chop Hill.
 

The lesson of human history is that preserving and protecting human life at times requires stopping the killers by means of extreme force. Western democracies did not stop the Nazi shooting of Jews and others in open pits and gassing them in death camps before millions of defenseless human beings perished. Western democracies did not stop the Japanese rape of the Chinese people and thousands of others as they conquered huge swaths of the Far East. Nor did they stop Soviet tank forces crushing the freedom-loving people of Hungary and Poland. Whatever horrid ideology prompted those deliberately murderous attacks, their ultimate purpose was territorial control through elimination of anyone standing in opposition and brutal intimidation of the remaining population into silence.
 

Whatever ghastly ideology prompts ISIL’s wanton and brutal killing of prisoners, hostages, and Christians, their purpose is similar to the Nazis, the Japanese, and the Soviets: territorial control through the elimination of anyone standing in their way and the silencing of everyone else. So-called moderate Muslims understand full well that to speak out is to sign their own death warrant. The caliphate is not about spreading the Muslim religion. As with street gangs, it’s about seizing territory in order to wield power. The larger the territory, the greater the power. The greater the power, the more likely the murderous regime will endure.
 

ISIL-led  butchers are too young, too disinterested in history, to know what the Third Reich and the Empire of Japan looked like in 1945, to what lies ahead for them. Nations that endure are not built on murder and mayhem. They are built on the much firmer ground of the rule of law, the family, the sacred dignity of all human beings, and fundamental human rights including freedom of speech and freedom to practice one’s religious beliefs.
 

The State Department spokesperson who asserted that “we cannot kill our way out of this” insisted that what is needed is economic development. She too has a problem with history. The Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe was implemented in the aftermath of WWII. It did not prevent that war or replace it. It was addressed to its effects.
 

There is no other way to deal with nations led by fanatical criminals who in the end value their own death over life. Remember the pictures of Hitler in 1945 embracing German boys in uniform and urging them to stand fast against their enemies all the while knowing that they were too young to understand the futile task set before them? Or the suicidal leaps from cliffs of Japanese civilians on Okinawa? It’s not just that they are committed to killing their enemies. They are committed to killing themselves for some higher purpose.
 

If the West remains aloof from the killing of the defenseless in the Middle East it could face the prospect of trying to stop the killers in Europe and North America.  Consider the message being sent by ISIL. “We will put a sledge hammer to Michelangelo’s David and the Bruges Madonna, slash Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and Rembrandt’s The Night Watch, tear down the Statue of Liberty and Arc de Triomphe, burn the rare book collections at the Library of Congress and the British National Library, demolish Notre Dame Cathedral, the  Great Synagogue of Europe, and the underground salt cathedral of Poland. Convert Cambridge, Oxford, and the Sorbonne to religious schools. 
 

We have seen this scourge before. It is personified in the madness of Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Hirodito, Mao, and others, all of whom acted on the premise that social reconstruction is served best by killing those who oppose their vision. ISIL is based on the same premise. Thus, for them killing is not evil, it is good because in their mind it leads to a new and enduring social order. ISIL succeeds when the war-weary people of West are unwilling to stand in their way or are prepared to look the other way in the hope that they will be allowed to survive. It is time once again to stop the killers.

Edward J. O’Boyle is Senior Research Associate with Mayo Research Institute

www.mayoresearch.org