OPINION:
There was a time we put America first.
It was not much different than our own. We were at war with Nazi Germany — that sought the total eradication of the Jewish population in order to create a master race and a fascist state.
Now, we’re at war with radical Islamic terrorists, whose goal it is to annihilate the United States and Israel, wipe the earth clean of Muslim non-believers, and to hasten the End of Days.
Their goal, much like that of the Nazis, is complete and utter racial and ideological domination.
In 1934, the U.S. House of Representatives convened the Special Committee on Un-American Activities in reaction to the rise of Nazi Germany.
The U.S. government’s concern was Nazi ideology may grow and spread in the United States — thereby subverting the U.S. Constitution. The committee was to ascertain information about how foreign subversive propaganda entered the United States, which organizations were spreading it, and to suggest legislation to remedy it.
This week, after the deadly ISIS-inspired shootout in Orlando, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich recommended the reinstatement of this committee.
“We originally created the House Un-American Activities Committee to go after Nazis,” Mr. Gingrich said during an appearance on “Fox and Friends.” “We passed several laws in 1938 and 1939 to go after Nazis and we made it illegal to help the Nazis. We’re going to presently have to go take the similar steps here.”
Mr. Gingrich framed the idea under the context of a growing and more powerful ISIS threat.
“We’re going to ultimately declare a war on Islamic supremacists and we’re going to say if you pledge allegiance to ISIS, you are a traitor and you have lost your citizenship. We’re going to take much tougher positions,” he said.
Even though Mr. Gingrich’s suggestion was ridiculed in the mainstream media, I agree.
The Orlando shooting wasn’t because of easy access to guns, as the left would like you to believe, it was because a radicalized strain of Islam was allowed to grow and fester in our homeland. We as a nation need to be open about all potential solutions to this cancer, or we’ll never be able to eradicate it.
For our current strategy under President Barack Obama — and promised to be continued under Hillary Clinton — clearly isn’t working.
These perverse radical Islamists, who have established caliphates in Iraq and Syria, burn people alive, throw homosexuals off skyscrapers, rape women, murder children, and strap bombs to their bodies to blow themselves up either on airliners or in public eateries.
And they’re intent on penetrating our borders, whether it be physically or via the Internet, where they look to corrupt vulnerable young minds.
ISIS is at war with western civilization, whether we want to believe it or not. Whether a militant is directly part of a proven terror network, or acts on his own because of Internet propaganda, the motive is all the same: To wreak havoc and eventually destroy non-Sharia believing states.
On Thursday, CIA Director John Brennan told Congress ISIS militants are training and attempting to deploy operatives for further attacks on the West. He said they’d been working on building an apparatus to direct and inspire attacks against in foreign enemies, and they’re using the Internet to recruit and mobilize.
ISIS is looking to smuggle its terrorists into western states by disguising them as refugees, and is calling on its supporters in Western countries to carry out lone-wolf attacks, much like the one in Orlando, Mr. Brennan said.
Radical Islam is a real-world security matter.
But the only solution liberals seem to have in stopping it is to propose more to gun-control. Moreover, any other suggestion — like reconvening and revamping the House Un-American Activities Committee — is characterized as morally repugnant, not morally necessary.
I don’t agree with all of Donald Trump’s security recommendations, like banning Muslims from entering the United States, but he does have a point there’s gaps in our screening and vetting process for immigrants and refugees, that it must be addressed. Right now, he’s the only presidential contender talking about it.
He’s also the only candidate in the presidential race who has diagnosed radical Islamic terrorism for what it is — a threat to our nation and values. Yes, saying “radical Islam” out-loud will not cease caliphates from developing, but it gives Americans comfort in knowing our leaders understand the threat, so they can accurately identify and hunt down these networks and cells.
We as a nation need to recognize that we’re under attack, and its time we put our values, our Constitution first.
For there was a time when we did that, and we won.
• Kelly Riddell is a columnist for The Washington Times.
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