I am feeling very sad for the families of American journalists Steven Sotloff and James Foley. In the grand scheme of things, one life lost to ISIS is a small thing. This is an organization that wipes out whole communities in minutes, rapes and enslaves women, and executes anyone who won’t convert to their deranged version of Islam. But none of that mitigates the pain the family of James Foley is feeling tonight. And none of it can do anything to lesson the terror the Sotloff family is feeling.
The American people will not appreciate seeing one of their citizens beheaded on YouTube, and it will only create a greater willingness to lend support to efforts to destroy ISIS. If ISIS doesn’t understand this, they have learned nothing from how this country reacted to 9/11. We may not have reacted in a logical manner or in a productive manner, but we brought some serious violence. That’s how Americans react to provocation. For good or ill, we don’t respond well to threats. We’re capable of being good people when we have good leadership, and we have that right now. But that doesn’t mean we or our leaders are going to be blackmailed into letting the Islamic State turn the Middle East into a caliphate from the Middle Ages.
I’m worried about Steven Sotloff. I know ISIS is willing to follow through and kill him, and I know locating and rescuing him is a near-impossible task. But whether he lives or dies, we will find his tormenters and get our revenge.
