If I were to describe Iran's hostage crisis, a reader might think I was writing about the 1979 incident when Iran held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days during the Carter administration.

But I am writing about the current hostage crisis! 

Over the years, Iran has taken thousands of hostages.  They have learned that hostages create leverage at little cost.  Taking hostages is a form of asymmetric warfare. 

Sadly, we have not figured out how to respond.  Americans have lost confidence in America's ability to protect them. 

We operate under a changed military doctrine, which finds us fighting today's war with yesterday's tactics.  Today's war is for truth itself, and we are losing badly. 

Crowds of people fight from the opposite sides of our streets.  They battle us in our houses of worship, our universities, and even in the halls of Congress.  

Events worldwide can be tied to just a few central players trying to orchestrate the end of Western civilization.  Scenes from all over reveal those seeking an end to the modern world as we know it.   Are you appalled when tens of thousands here and hundreds of thousands worldwide effectively call for Israel to surrender?  Some are actually calling for the Jews' annihilation right here in America, in our schools and other institutions.  It resembles 1939 Germany.

Americans and Europeans share a common desire to avoid endless wars.  Many are predisposed to accept any idea, concept, or action that will prevent it.  History is replete with those declaring "Peace in our Time" or apologists who attempt to rewrite history so that uneducated or intentionally miseducated can be sold lies.

Here are a few absurdities, which are so monstrous I am convinced that Satan's hand is evident:

1. With bodies yet unburied, millions of people believe that the attack by Hamas never happened or is overblown.  How is this different from the belief that the Holocaust never happened or that the number of dead was wildly inflated or was no worse than for other groups during that war?
    
2. Freedom of speech is no longer universally true.  Words and meanings are being twisted as was done in Germany during the run-up to World War II.  Much of the world collectively ignored the words, phrases, and deeds of Adolf Hitler.  We do the same today, whether discussing Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, or the mullahs who seek to end Israel and our world as we know it in a single bright flash. 
   
   The politically foolish would stand behind a sign that said "Chickens for Colonel Sanders" if their influencers told them to.  Free thought has devolved to following the loudest and most outrageous who gleefully say, "burn it all down," while those who know better and have the most to lose stand quiet in the face of the mob.
    
3. Isolationism and globalism has become a new mantra splitting the U.S. into two camps.  A new axis of evil exists to bring our civilization to its knees.  We dare not let them win.
   
   Are we so stupid and insular that we no longer recognize our enemies?   Enemies like Iran use the Koran to justify butchery, deceit, lying, and holy war against the infidels.  Iran hides behind Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and over a dozen other named front organizations.
   
   "Then the Jews will hide behind rocks and trees," says the Hamas Covenant, which they teach to five year-olds. "And the rocks and trees will cry out: 'O Muslim, a Jew is hiding behind me, come and kill him.'" In this recent attack, young people fleeing from the wreckage of their music festival were hunted down as they literally hid behind rocks and trees.
    
4. Many Americans and Europeans, in their relative safety, tell themselves little lies.  They view the world through the lens of equivalency and decency.  They seek to be fair, just, and inclusive as much as they can without sacrifice or skin in the game.  Protesting for justice on our mostly safe streets becomes a surrogate for the necessary intellectual rigor that should include understanding history, critical thinking, and not becoming a propagandist for anyone.
    
5. Worst of all, we allow evil to take our children.  A society that requires so little effort to survive has made us soft.  How many "good parents" actually understand what is being taught to little Alex?  Ensconced in our decadent pleasures and rituals like Monday Night Football, we allowed our children to become indoctrinated.  Now, we pay a horrible price.  Our children have turned against us; some even behave like children who grew up in East Germany, North Korea, or the Soviet Union.   Too many of our children embrace a false system of values.  We see so many of our young lost and disapproving of the society that raised them.  

I am taken by the following statement by a peace activist living in Israel who believes in equivalency yet was swept up like so much sand in the wind for his troubles:

'They too have casualties, captives, and mothers who weep … Let's make real peace"—spoken not by a liberal peacenik speaking from the safety of London or Washington but by Yaakov Argamani, whose daughter Noa was taken hostage at a music festival near Re'im on Israel's border with Gaza.

Recent events around the Free World History reflect the impending failure of Democracy and Individualism if nothing changes.  Threats to civilization must be met with the greatest degree of resolve and ferocity.  Israel hears Iran's threat clearly in the chant…" From the river to the sea." I wonder how many tens of thousands repeating this meme realize it is meant to describe Israel's complete and utter destruction?  Many of the protesters are closely aligned with various intersectional groups.  I wonder how they would fare anywhere Iran has influence!

While Israel has been a central theme in this article, the same thinking applies to how we see what is happening in Russia and China, and in their aggressions against Taiwan, Ukraine, and other places where a massive fist is closing.  Narratives, misinformation, false histories, and a media willing to believe the worst when fed misinformation by Hamas are emblematic of the larger problem: accepting false truths without careful analysis and a sense of history. 

I hope our conquerors do not write our epitaph one day.

Wake up, America, and come together before there's no turning back.  United, we stand.  Otherwise, as a countty divided by misinformation and failure to understand our purpose, we will most certainly fall.

God Bless America.

Allan J. Feifer is a patriot, author, businessman, thinker, and strategist.  Read more about Allan, his background, and his ideas to create a better tomorrow at www.1plus1equals2.com

Image: Pexels // CC0 public domain