It is necessary and noble to grieve innocent victims of Salafi-Jihadist terrorism with love.
But terrorists are not eliminated by love. They are eliminated by, among other things, U.S. guns and missiles.
I note this in light of Wednesday’s outpouring on Twitter by friends, family, and strangers for victims of the Pulse nightclub attack in Orlando, Fla., on June 12, 2016. The Islamic State inspired Omar Mateen’s atrocity that took 49 innocent lives and wounded 53 more. But as Twitter put it, “messages of love echo on the third anniversary of Pulse nightclub shooting.”
The shared humanity here is touching. Strangers who never knew the victims of the Pulse massacre are making sure that those victims’ families know their loved ones won’t be forgotten. For all the negative press it receives, social media is again proving why it is more a force for good than it is ill.
Yet, we dishonor those who keep us safe if we forget that the ISIS-inspired threat was not countered by love. It was countered by the vigorous application of lethal American-led military and intelligence service force. By airstrikes that turned individuals like Mohammed “Jihadi John” Emwazi into dust, and by special forces raids that pulverized ISIS heads. By military actions that showed the world that ISIS is not an ordained purposeful cause protected by God’s will, but rather a death cult to be annihilated. We must accept these joined truths of love and death.
The survival of humanity’s love demands it.
After all, our love of the victims at Pulse nightclub cannot sustain without the elimination of the Salafi-Jihadist terrorists who aim to end that love. Their ideology is centered in nihilism and theological totalitarianism. This is not an ideology that allows for love.
It’s easy to waive peace signs and noble to speak truly of love. But the enemy of those interests must also be defeated. The challenge of Salafi-Jihadism will ultimately be marginalized by political reform, but sometimes we’ll also have to kill its followers. We dishonor the innocent dead and risk other innocents by forgetting that truth.
