The time to act against Islamic terrorists is now

To the Editor:

Islamic terrorism. 200 girls kidnapped into slavery; 30 people beheaded; 40 people burned alive; 20 people killed in France and Denmark. It doesn’t matter what group name is used, this animalistic behavior must be stopped.

The United States must take a leadership role in eliminating these terrorist organizations. This will take a world coalition and we must use every persuasive argument to convince the world community that we are facing a global cancer and it must cease.

The debate in our country will focus on U.S. forces (boots on the ground) and the length of the commitment. these are the questions that must be answered before we commit our resources.

— Is it in our national interest and that of our allies?

—Do we have a clear intention of winning?

—What are our political and military objectives? This will define “winning” and what the world will look like in the future.

—We must define a clear relationship between our objectives and our forces.

— Do we have the support of the American people and Congress?

— Have we exhausted all diplomatic options? War must be our last resort.

Our President and Congress must act now to eliminate this depraved movement and work toward a resolution of issues that spawn such barbarity.

This is not an easy task but we have been in the region in force since 1989 and have been actively fighting against terrorists since Sept. 11, 2001. If we can’t articulate our goals and identify a plan to accomplish them by now, then what have we been doing for the past fourteen years?

Time is critical and I believe it’s better to be roughly right now, then to be precisely right too late. Radical Islamic fundamentalists cannot be allowed to succed in any form and the United States must lead this fight.

Please contact your Senator and Representative to let them know something must be done now. I did.

— David R. Manki

Hurley, Wis.