We Are the World

Rather than mushily pretending "the world" will do something about ISIL, President Obama would have done better to walk up to the podium, state that "we want either James Foley alive or ISIL dead," and then walked off the stage--but not to the golf course.

That incident isn't the template for our actions, of course. But we need a little imagery of presidential resolve.

To be followed by an order to our military to do what it takes to leverage Iraqi (and Kurdish) forces to smash ISIL.

There are people dying. And it's time to lend a hand to life. The greatest gift of all. We can't go on pretending day by day that someone, somewhere will soon make a change.

We are the world when it comes to stopping evil that would kill us in our sleep and then dip their hands in our blood staining the concrete in joyous celebration of their murderous deeds.

UPDATE: Related from Jonah Goldberg. Does President Obama--the God-King of the so-called Reality-Based Community--believe that evil will naturally falter in the face of time and the so-called will of world opinion?

Taken together, these two ideas — that everything will work out in the long run, and that there’s some entity other than the U.S. that will take care of things — provide a license to do, well, if not nothing, then certainly nothing that might detract from your golf game.

Sadly, good people with the resolve and capability to defeat evil are necessary rather than some nebulous appeal to inevitability.