Once upon a time, there was a shepherdess who was charged with keeping her sheep in the pasture and away from the clutch of the terrible wolves. Over the years, the shepherdess worked long and hard at this duty. Despite all her efforts, some sheep occasionally fell victim to the wolves.

One day, however, the shepherdess thought it better to come to an agreement with the wolves. The hard work of keeping the wolves and sheep separate was simply too much for her. It would be much better and easier for all concerned if the wolves could mix peaceably and coexist with the sheep. Mind you, she would keep a careful watch on the wolves to ensure that no sheep was attacked. However, as long as the wolves did not attack the sheep, they would be left free to wander about the pasture mingling with the flock. She would even tie up the sheepdog to avoid misunderstandings.

The wolves thought the arrangement superb and for a while, everything seemed to work out fine with only a few minor incidents here and there. However, the first wolves soon invited other more hostile wolves to join them, and these started to take over the pasture and harass the sheep. The shepherdess redoubled her watch upon the growing number of wolves in the hopes of avoiding a crisis.

One day when the defenseless sheep were resting, a wolf, who had never hurt any of the sheep before, rushed to the scene and brutally killed some of them. The shepherdess let loose the sheepdog who killed the offending wolf. The whole pasture was shocked. Many had seen the wolf in past days acting completely normal. They could not understand what had caused the wolf to act in such a manner. The sheep upbraided the shepherdess for failing to read the signs of crisis inside the soul of the dead wolf. Others searched for evidence that the wolf had been mistreated by the sheep, causing it to become bitter and resentful. Still others claimed this incident was merely the action of a lone wolf and hardly represented the sentiments of the others.

In the end, the shepherdess visited the site of the incident and urged all, wolves and sheep alike, to unite together to denounce such random acts of violence. She promised to be more careful in the future when allowing new wolves in. She said she would redouble her watch on the wolves to avoid this terrible tragedy from ever reoccurring.

The story does not end happily ever after. The sequence of events repeated itself continually until life for the sheep became unbearable and the wolves had installed a reign of savagery and terror.

One cannot help but feel a similarity between the story above and the recent spate of terrorist attacks in London and other places. Healthy societies take measures to keep out bad elements who subvert the general peace and endanger the safety of their citizens.

But the West has abandoned this policy of exclusion for one of inclusion, that welcomes those that have declared their intent to destroy the remnants of Judeo-Christian order.  It takes no mysterious process to identify these rogue elements. Radical Islamists mock the West by openly admitting their hatred in publications, websites and social media. In addition, they invite even more radical elements to come from outside the country to swell their ranks.

The preferred government policy is to monitor the behavior of the radicals. Indeed, many of the attackers are “known” by the police to be security threats before they attack innocent civilians in the streets. There are many more “known” suspects that even now live undisturbed in many cities, and their number is growing. As this is allowed to develop, it must inevitably reach a point where no police force in the world will have the resources to monitor all the dangerous individuals. At this point, they will strike and kill.

Something must be done to denounce and stop this policy of appeasement. It must be based on the premise that there are sheep and there are wolves. Wolves can always be counted upon to act like wolves if given the opportunity to strike.

Those in government who are remiss in their duty to eradicate the wolves and content themselves with just monitoring them become partially responsible for their crimes. Their complicit hands become stained with the blood of the sheep. They should at least be honest and admit that they have now become shepherdesses of wolves, not sheep.

John Horvat II is a scholar, researcher, educator, international speaker, and author of the book Return to Order, as well as the author of hundreds of published articles. He lives in Spring Grove, Pennsylvania where he is the vice president of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property.