Thoughts On Orlando

There are almost no words to describe and or explain the terror that must have taken place this past Sunday morning at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida.
One thing is for certain and that this was an act of Islamofacsist terror, period. Omar Mateen called 911 during the carnage to pledge his allegiance to the Islamic State and cited leaders of the bloodthirsty group that controls part of Iraq and Syria. And the investigation is taking some real twists and turns including a report that Mr. Mateen made to trips to Saudi Arabia and that he tried to purchase body armor.
What is truly fascinating about this is the reaction and what should be the focus moving forward.
Shamefully it is falling along the political lines that have divided the United States for a long time now.
On the left, led by the Dear Leader, President Obama, there is a lack of willingness to call this act what it is. An act of Islamofacsist terror. There is no willingness to utter the words radical Islam. There is a push for gun control as there always is after a mass shooting. There is a lot of standing united with Orlando. There is the Pray for Orlando. And because the Pulse nightclub was a gay club there is the attempt to link it just to homophobia and or a hate crime.
On the right, the recognition that this is an act of Islamofacsist terror. That it will take a serious effort to fight against not just the Islamic State but those who act in the name of the Islamic State and or any other group that seeks to instill radical Islam in the West and the rest of the world. That while prayers are necessary it will take more than that to fight such a long-term war.
And let me make clear that there is a difference to have an opinion on the role of gays and lesbians in society in a  nation like ours. But it is more political than organized carnage that this act of terror was. The fact is that these are fellow Americans that died at the hands of the evil Mateen and I sure as hell don't care that they were mostly gay and or lesbian. They are Americans, period. To radical Islamic forces, this is an acceptable way to deal with those that are gay and or lesbian. Just note that in the Islamic State held lands, it is perfectly acceptable for the so-called authorities to throw suspected homosexuals off the top of the tallest building in any given town. And if there is not a tall enough building, stoning those people is perfectly acceptable. Before one uses an obscure Christian pastor who thinks this is a good thing, note that is in the minority and so far they have not carried out acts such as these.
The problem is that we need to put aside the politics and recognize that we are fighting a real enemy. An enemy that hates modernity (except for guns and pick-up trucks). They hate gays and lesbians. They hate Jews. They hate Americans. They hate anything that is non-Islamic. And they even hate those that they perceive to be not pure enough Islamic/Muslim. They carry out their hate in acts such as what took place in Orlando. In San Bernardino. In Paris, France. In London, England. Any and everywhere they see an enemy.
I will be the first to admit that there are people that agree on the basic need to take on these terror merchants but disagree on how to do so. But there are those that want to bury their heads in the sand and suggest that any true discussion on radical Islam is really just Islamophobia. It is sort of like when former President Jimmah Carter and his statement that we in the West, and particularly the United States, had an inordinate fear of communism.
What I fear is that what will happen is if we do not come to some kind of consensus policy on dealing with radical Islam, the more attacks that happen the stronger the possibility that there will be a bad backlash against good, patriotic Americans that practise Islam. I want to avoid such a backlash. We can do that if we try.
We need to do something good and unifying for those that died and were injured in Orlando. While I an sympathetic to those that are putting the Love Wins all over Facebook, I think it is time to stop trying to score political points and take on radical Islam as the United States of America.