When people come out of deep denial about dangers like global jihad, it’s often agonizingly slow and indirect.  Obama still can’t see out of his box of jihad denial, and he isn’t even willing to try.  After all, he has a lifetime of immersion in peculiar cult beliefs, to the point of self-caricature:  Breitbart has counted twenty-two times in recent weeks that Obama declared that “climate change is a greater threat than terrorism.”

But Vladimir Putin and the Europeans are waking up.  Putin has fought jihadis ever since Chechen rebels murdered 184 elementary school children in Beslan, followed by the Moscow theater hostage crisis.  Putin is a ruthless autocrat, but on the threat of jihad, he has never shown a moment of doubt.  He thinks Muslim mass murder of civilians is unmitigated evil, and he treated Chechnya “like Stalingrad,” as he threatened to do again a few weeks ago.  The West always wants to avoid innocent casualties, but Putin acts to win as quickly as possible.  He doesn’t have a gaggle of Harvard lawyers peering over his generals’ shoulders.

Western European politicians are just as slippery as Obama, and just as good at evading hard decisions.  When François Hollande ran for president of France, his biggest promise was a 75% income tax rise for the rich.  Yet Hollande has now sent France’s modern aircraft carrier to bomb ISIS, knowing that there is likely to be retaliation from ISIS attack.  The fact that the Front National is gaining votes against Hollande with a no-nonsense approach to jihad is certainly helping to push France into a more serious response.  But at some level, Europe’s politicians have figured out that appeasement hasn’t stopped the terror gangs from getting bigger and more dangerous.  Even with all the appeasement in the world, jihad terrorism will keep coming until the perps and their Saudi and Iranian funders are dead. 

The most important thing is that for the time being, France has broken through its own long time of denial.  The French are far ahead of the president of the United States.

Britain and Germany are joining the battle more delicately, with the Germans claiming to provide only non-violent aid against ISIS.  Britain is sending the RAF, always a symbol of national assertiveness and pride.  Other nations, like Italy, have long sent special ops forces under light cover.  Step by tiny step, the West is coming to its senses.

Was it only a few weeks ago that Europe was waxing self-righteous about Israel’s actions against Hamas?  Was it only a few months ago that a smiling Obama led a Western group hug with the murderous mullahs of Tehran?  What happened to Spain’s threat to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu as a war criminal, for doing exactly the same things that Russia, France, and Britain are doing now?  Is Sweden still going to boycott Israeli products, while turning a blind eye to the rape jihad in Malmoe?

Years and years of dithering – and, frankly, of selling out to jihadists – have now resulted in an unbelievable mess.  Together, the United States and Europe have overwhelming military and technological might, and joined with Putin’s decisiveness, the West could make quick work out of the global jihad.

But that will not happen, because our politicians have compromised us by their double-dealing.

Lie down with dogs, and you’ll get up with fleas.

The rise of Donald Trump in the United States shows that everyday Americans are no longer in denial.  The Europeans may be breaking through their own pathological denial.  Obama and the Democrats are still stuck in mental mud, but if the Democrats want to survive, they will have to walk away from Obama soon.

Americans and Europeans have been in denial of reality for fifteen years, since 9/11/01.  Today, we may be approaching the end of self-delusion.

As Winston Churchill wrote under practically identical circumstances:

Now this is not the end.  It is not even the beginning of the end.  But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.