President Obama needs to excuse himself, sit alone in the White House Media Room, and get his hands on a copy of Peter Jackson’s masterpiece in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Two Towers.  He needs to watch it.  Take notes.

At the climax of the first battle for Middle Earth, between the World of Men and the evil Sauron’s army, clear direction is laid out for dithering American leadership when confronting murderous savages in a hard, dark world.  Aragorn, de facto leader of the Men, surveys the 10,000 Orcs roaring outside for war, champing at the bit with yellow fangs, eager to slaughter the world of Men.

Aragorn shouts his final command to his fighters as both battle cry and warning: Show them no mercy, for you shall receive none.

The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, are Sunni Muslim cowards who wish to impose sharia law on the entire world.  ISIS is on a reckless, hate-filled binge of land and petroleum theft, kidnappings, rape, crucifixions, genocide of Christians, naked pogroms, and beheadings.  Victims include two American journalists, James Foley and Steven Sotloff.  Their murders were flaunted on social media, and carried out in the most ruthless and pain-inducing manner: beheading with a small, apparently dull knife.  These supposed badass alpha male thugs, however, all have their faces covered while doing the deeds.

A friend of mine in Tehran, whom I met in Istanbul some years ago, reported to me via Skype recently that ISIS also kill any canine they encounter, as they view dogs as unclean and a Western affectation of indulgence.  Her sister lived about 100 miles south of Erbil, Iraq and reported the loss of her family’s beloved dogs to ISIS forces.  She told me the dogs were gutted while alive, then hung from fence posts.

That is why Obama’s head-scratching over how to proceed with ISIS is mystifying.  These are the bad guys.  There are no shades of gray, nor colorable issues to mull over in late-night gab sessions with Valerie Jarrett.  This one is easy.

Destroy them.  Use the awe-inducing, trillion-dollar budget of the Defense Department and give them a huge helping of the pain they gleefully dish out.  Obama is resolute that ground forces will not be used.  Why?  For the first time in thirty years, this is not a morally ambiguous war spit-glued together with shaky evidence or faked connections.  Hesitation on part of America is viewed in the Arab extremist world as weakness.  As revolting and brutal as Saddam Hussein was, and Bashar al-Assad is, they knew to keep their boot on the throat of some of their countryman, or bedlam would break loose.

And now it has.  If we do not annihilate ISIS, then the American lives lost and the trillions of dollars spent to stabilize the Middle East and purge it of terrorists have become meaningless.  To the minimizers who claim that the threat of ISIS is overblown, take a moment to meditate on the events of September 11, 2001, a horrifying anniversary days away.  That was nine men with murder and mayhem on their minds.  They obliterated thousands of American families and gave birth to the nauseating freaks of ISIS, who now control an area the size of Great Britain.

ISIS is well-funded, deeply committed, and deadly serious.  They may not be here yet, but they will come.  Analysis has its place when lines are blurry.  Here, there is only the bright red line of civilization on one side, and knuckle-dragging, pitiless barbarians on the other.

Use every tool we have and wipe them out.  Without mercy.