Radical Islam declared war on the United States in 1979, and has been killing us ever since, one at a time or by the thousands as in the Twin Towers. Nonetheless, we have resolutely determined not to call the enemy by name. We refer to our killers as the disciples of the religion of peace, and put up the killers we capture in a five star hotel we call Guantanamo Bay. The Obama administration ordered the FBI to remove the word Islam from its field manuals, allowing the Boston Marathon bombers to skate through, despite dire warnings from the Russians that they were trained terrorists. We use euphemisms and outright lies to deceive ourselves. In time of crisis, the Carthaginian elite would sacrifice their children to Melqart, the God of the Underworld, in hope of staving off disaster. But the tiny burnt sacrifices offered up on the altars in the Tophet availed them not. A Roman army destroyed them utterly. And this is where we are today. We have sacrificed truth for euphemism, and euphemism for falsehood. And an enemy as fierce as the Romans watches the smoke from the Tophet and waits for the chance he knows will come.

Remove the name of Allah

From the list of those who may

Intend to maim and kill us

For we know there is no way

That a peaceable religion

Could engage in such a course

And would never think to harm us

Or employ a deadly force

But in case we are mistaken

We shall pray for a reprieve

And prepare the sacred fires

For in Melqart we believe

Build a Tophet in each city

Line the children one by one

And we’ll march them to the altars

At the setting of the sun