In an interview with BBC World Service in 2012, American freelance photojournalist James Foley said  he was motivated to work in Iraq, Libya, and Syria  because he and other journalists are “drawn to the human rights side” of conflicts, that he wanted to convey “who these people really are”. He probably did not suspect then he would pay the ultimate price in a video of his beheading by a jihadist with a British accent.

He ended up losing his life to a violent subset involved in Muslim conflicts not worthy of the empathy he sought to convey. Instead, Foley’s grotesque death verified that certain Muslim extremists are actually murderous modern-day zealots with a medieval state of mind possessing scant regard for human life, fair play, or democratic principles.

The Islamic fanatics come galloping right out of Revelation, wielding destruction, pillage, and murder. As Israel’s experiences with Hamas, conditions in Iraq concerning ISIL, civil war in Syria, and general instability throughout the global Muslim Caliphate demonstrate, this is more than an “asymmetric” conflict between tribal clans and advanced superstates -- as policy wonks neatly phrase the situation. Christendom, as the West was quaintly called until the 20th century, is fighting for its very existence.

What is causing helplessness in the West is the absence of a unified belief in a moral code as a foil to Islamic religious zealotry. While the demise of religious principles in the West has left only a secular perspective, even so, it can work. For example, President Ronald Reagan’s unwavering commitment to freedom in defiance of the Soviets resulted in the collapse of communism. His grasp of American principles and faith in the righteousness of his cause won the day. George W. Bush understood the necessity to act after 9-11 by invading Iraq. But now the Bush strategy is vilified under Obama, leaving Iraq in chaos and America and the West with no moral policy, secular or religious. Despite our nuclear arsenals and obscene wealth, we are losing the war against Islam.

The result is ongoing humiliation, weak response, and a milieu of helplessness. The videotaped execution of an American journalist is treated as a commonplace, hardly worth following up by the media in a political culture defined by politically-correct posturing and fatuous utopian schemes. There is little outrage and no retaliation. The macabre is simply a factoid on the TV screen because we are not affected morally anymore.

As old Leftists insisted in the 1960s and 70s, they were unpatriotic to the Amerika we all lived in, but allegiant to the theoretical America they were effecting, a so-called "better world". This nonsense defines the Left today. Obama is wool-gathering, dismissing things as they are, instead focusing on utopian social issues -- racial, gender, and gay equality, the U.S. as a middling power, green policies and the redistribution of wealth – like Nero fiddling while Rome burned. Meanwhile, with no unifying moral principle or foreign policy, America’s moral role and self-esteem are destroyed and the rise of Islam assured.