Skip to main content
Tags: peggy noonan | jihad | terrorism | attack | wall street journal

Peggy Noonan: Our Leaders Are Failing Us in War Against Radical Jihadism

Peggy Noonan: Our Leaders Are Failing Us in War Against Radical Jihadism
(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

By    |   Friday, 25 March 2016 03:02 PM EDT

World leaders are not adequately addressing the threat of radical jihadism, said columnist Peggy Noonan in the Wall Street Journal

She said a simple strategy must be, "We win. They lose," quoting Ronald Reagan's stance on the Soviet Union.

"Radical Islam is not going to go away," Noonan said. "Not for a long time, probably decades."

She said if only 1.6 million out of the 1.6 billion Muslims in the world hate the West and plan to carry out attacks, "that is a lot of ferociousness in an age of increasingly available weapons of the chemical, biological, and nuclear sort."

The West must deal with the jihadists as a real threat, and must no longer underestimate them or ignore them, because they are growing stronger.

"Right now it's guns and suicide vests," she said. "Their future weapons will be more sophisticated and deadly."

Noonan calls for politicians to do more than offer "thoughts and prayers."

Noonan points to Graham Wood's report in The Atlantic, which said, "For certain true believers, apocalyptic bloodbaths fill a deep psychological need."

The key issue with leaders not facing the Jihadists' threat, Noonan believes, is pride. She said that Republican leaders and U.S. officials are "convinced of their own higher moral thinking" and do not want to address closing borders and reforming immigration.

Writer John Daniel Davidson investigates the European response to radical Jihadism in The Federalist. He said the European Union must be a united organization for its struggle against terror.

And if the EU believes it is a united group, Davidson said, the EU must coordinate security and immigration policies and "it must begin acting like one."

© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

Sign up for Newsmax’s Daily Newsletter

Receive breaking news and original analysis - sent right to your inbox.

(Optional for Local News)
Privacy: We never share your email address.

Newsfront
World leaders are not adequately addressing the threat of radical jihadism, said columnist Peggy Noonan in the Wall Street Journal.
peggy noonan, jihad, terrorism, attack, wall street journal
277
2016-02-25
Friday, 25 March 2016 03:02 PM
Newsmax Media, Inc.
Join the Newsmax Community
Read and Post Comments
Please review Community Guidelines before posting a comment.
 

Interest-Based Advertising | Do not sell or share my personal information

Newsmax, Moneynews, Newsmax Health, and Independent. American. are registered trademarks of Newsmax Media, Inc. Newsmax TV, and Newsmax World are trademarks of Newsmax Media, Inc.

NEWSMAX.COM
America's News Page
© 2025 Newsmax Media, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Download the Newsmax App
NEWSMAX.COM
America's News Page
© 2025 Newsmax Media, Inc.
All Rights Reserved