In the aftermath of the terror attacks in India, the civilized individuals of every peace loving nation, must sit back and ask themselves how such terrorism can be stopped. Earlier I wrote that it’s perpetrators cannot be stopped, but rather can be controlled. My reasoning for this is circuitous but reasonable. The terrorists allegedly are not a national entity but rather a loosely connected group of cells, made up of individuals whose goal is to destroy those who would be considered “infidels” in the eyes of those who have interpreted their holy scripture in an false manner.

No true religious faith promotes death to those who are not of that faith. The Judeo Christian faiths leave the final disposition of mankind to he who created it. The false reading of the Koran alternatively leaves that task in the hands of its misled followers. Yet, control of Radical Islam leaves, in its wake, the corpses of innocents who died but for the lack of a will to conquer such a radical faith. We have the power to conquer such radicals, notwithstanding the fact that they claim no specific national location.

Yes, the Nazi’s were conquered by firebombing Germany and through the combined efforts of a two front offensive against Hitler and his minions. The Japanese were conquered by the use of the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. America looked upon the new weaponry in a different manner than it looks upon it’s weaponry of today. In 1945, such devastating weaponry ended the war and that was the goal. Millions of lives were saved by the use of nuclear weapons. Today, we refuse to look at the end to justify the means. Why? Because for the vast majority of us, the terror of Radical Islam has not hit us where we live. Yes, New York City suffered. Spain suffered. India suffered. There has been suffering elsewhere, but until it hits you, or your family or your friends, you just don’t consider it real enough to act.

Our arsenal of 1945 pales in comparison to the weaponry we have at our disposal today, and yet, no leader since the time of FDR and Harry Truman has been willing to accept the responsibility of using such destructive weaponry against his enemy. The power of public opinion has, in part, been responsible for our failure to fight our enemies with all the weapons in our arsenal. Rather, we simply let the enemy kill us one by one. We mourn our dead, but then go back to our lives as if nothing happened. Sadly, we have elected a man who, on face, mirrors this national complacency, and who would rather talk than fight, despite the fact that our enemy has no interest in talking.

What will it take to use such horrible weapons of mass destruction and where exactly would one use them, in this global war against terrorism? The answer is quite simple, and yet not so easily agreed upon by those we have elected to carry out their powers under the Constitution.

There may have been more to the founding father’s insistence on the separation of church and state. Outside of the burdens placed upon them by the King of England and his church, which today we view from a historical perspective rather than a fact of condemnation against our close ally, our founders may have been farsighted enough to realize that matters and decisions of state could not be clouded by the morality which stems from the Old and New Testaments. Rather, they understood that there could come a time when even the most horrific acts of man could be justified when the continued existence of mankind was concerned. Of course, you will find nothing in our Constitution which denies us the right to defend ourselves by all means possible. What we have is the directive to our leaders to provide for our nation’s welfare.

What I am saying is that there may or rather will come a time when our leaders will have to make a decision as to the use of tactical nuclear weapons against these terrorists. However, do we use such a weapon on a simple safe house, housing a single cell of these animals? No, that would accomplish nothing. The key to the use of such weapons is mass destruction of an area or of a site, the end effect of which is so startling and so devastating that our enemy has to reconsider its original goals at the least and at the extreme, a total dissolution of the movement itself.

Our intelligence agency ( and that too is an oxymoron), given their past accomplishments in this war against terror, has within its grasp, along with cooperation of other national intelligence agencies, the knowledge as to where these terrorists live or exist, and where they train. Sadly, those locations are within the legal boundaries of nations which call themselves our friends. We also know that these terrorists are tied, by their faith, to certain religious sites and shrines throughout the middle east and the world. It is reasonable to consider these land masses and religious sites as fair and reasonable targets in this war on terror. In the past, our enemy has not held back in attacking and destroying our religious sites or those sites which house the “alleged enemy of their faith.”

There may come the day when their acts of aggression require our acts of commission insofar as using the weapons, at our disposal, to wipe these land masses and religious sites from the face of the earth. If you consider this concept too heinous for us to ever consider, consider this. Our enemy, given the opportunity to use such a weapon on us, would not give it a second thought. Is it going to take a nuclear bomb, purchased on the black market, from perhaps a disgruntled member of the Soviet Nuclear Force, and used on one of our major cities, to convince us that this threat is real? Remember, we have no idea as to the location of each nuclear warhead dismantled by the old Soviet Union.

And yes, having access to the nuclear material does not a bomb make. However, that knowledge has been dispersed throughout the world, by men who would rather profit from their knowledge than use it for good. To consider such a act as too horrible to even be considered means that you have not yet learned the true purpose of your enemy. If you are waiting for another Sodom and Gomorrah, you may be unhappy with what occurs in the meantime.

JLK