A sad, predictable, and preventable formula plays out over and over again in Europe and beyond. No amount of Facebook profile picture changes or national colors on the Eiffel Tower can change the existential threat Europe and the West face from radical Islamic terror. Made worse with waves of millions of unvetted refugees, the continent’s leaders must decide: are they serious enough to survive?
For many of Europe’s leaders, their main focus has been twofold: global warming and Donald Trump. While suicide bombers are massacring children, we are told that the United States’ exit from the Paris Accord is literally the end of the world. Consider that even with full cooperation of all signatories and the U.S., the Paris agreement does nothing to save the planet by NOAA’s own models.
{mosads}President Trump’s actions are a perfect dovetail for meaningless hand wringing and point scoring. The leaders of France and Germany — and some U.S. states — plan to go on without the American government.
Just three days before the London attacks and more than weeks after the Manchester massacre, London Mayor Sadiq Khan called climate change “one of the biggest risks to humanity,” while brushing off the threat of Islamist fanaticism. The attacks haven’t moved the needle as he used his platform to attack the sitting conservative government.
British Prime Minister Theresa May instead made a bold exhortation, saying “Enough is enough.” It was clear and forceful — and naturally Britain’s leftists hated it. The Guardian wrote with venom that May’s comments were “making the extremist threat worse.” Meanwhile, Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn wants to allow in every refugee from the Middle East knocking on Britain’s door.
How many more people need to die before the left will acknowledge the root cause of these terror attacks? Eight killed and 48 injured in London, 22 killed and 119 injured in Manchester, 49 killed and 58 injured in Orlando, 130 killed and 368 injured in Paris. The list goes on and on, yet many leaders still refuse to utter the words “radical Islamic terror.”
In the case of London, one of the biggest red flags (or should I say black ISIS flags) was that the attackers were in clear sights right on television. One attacker, Khuram Butt, was known to MI5 and was an extremist who partook in the radical elements of Islamists. Almost a rote point by now, he entered the country as a refugee from Pakistan. Police had a good idea the Manchester bomber Salman Abedi’s danger to the public and never acted on it. Abedi’s neighbors reported his strange actions to police, only to be rebuffed.
Climate change may today’s “cause celebre,” but even at the most alarmist projections, the world has 100 years to prepare. Civilians are massacred on the streets of Europe every week. The tempo of radical Islamist violence beats louder. Even with the decline of the Islamic State, it remains the seat of the Caliphate. If Europe placed a fraction of its efforts into the existential threat in front of their eyes it would stand a chance.
Instead, so many of the region’s leaders prefer to spend their energy tarring President Trump as an ignorant Yankee, because it’s politically popular. Mayor Khan wants Trump to cancel his goodwill trip to Britain. French President Emmanuel Macron should spend half the effort against ISIS he did compared to his now infamous “alpha” handshake.
The legacy media’s been scolding the U.S. for not giving its “fair share” in the nebulous fight against climate change. When President Trump asks NATO members to pay the minimum 2 percent threshold for collective defense all signatories agreed on, he’s treated like a leper.
With the United Kingdom’s elections this week, we will see firsthand whether or not the nations of Europe intend to face jihad head-on. Jeremy Corbyn’s gambit of doubling down on civilizational decline, 19th century-style socialism, and giving a free pass to radical Islam may just pay off. The attacks over the last several months show clearly who ISIS’s frontline soldiers want at the helm. Let’s not give them what they want paid in our own blood.
Kristin Tate is a conservative columnist and author of the book “Government Gone Wild: How D.C. Politicians Are Taking You For a Ride And What You Can Do About It.” She was recently named one of NewsMax’s “30 Most Influential Republicans Under 30.”
The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.