By Laurie Baron
MARGATE, New Jersey — Foreign observers have been surprised by the ferocity of the French government’s response to the terrorist attack on Paris. ISIS should have anticipated this is what would happen if it threatened the French while they were eating and drinking at cafes, attending concerts, or watching soccer. After all, the warning is clearly stated in the French national anthem:
Arise, children of the fatherland. The day of glory has arrived
Against us tyranny’s bloody standard is raised.
Listen to the sound in the fields, the howling of these fearsome soldiers.
They are coming into our midst to cut the throats of your sons and consorts.
To arms citizens; form your battalions;
March, march! Let impure blood water our furrows.
*
Backtracking from his proposal to register American Muslims, Donald Trump suggested building a wall around Iraq and Syria to prevent ISIS terrorists from coming to Europe and the United States and assured his supporters that France, Iran, and Russia would pay for it.
*
In a speech this week Hillary Clinton implied that she would be more hawkish in confronting the threat posed by ISIS than President Obama by emphasizing that she would swoop down on the ISIS Jihadists and sink her talons into them.
*
In a rare disagreement with Donald Trump, Ted Cruz expressed his distrust of the government registering anyone, especially African American, Asian, and Latino voters.
*
Grounding his opposition to permitting Syrian Muslims into the United States in his Christian faith, Ben Carson cited from the copy of the New Testament which the bathrobe-clad Jesus gave him: “It is easier for a politically inexperienced brain surgeon to win the presidency than it is for a Koran-toting refugee fleeing Syria to enter the kingdom of America.”
*
Baron is professor emeritus of history at San Diego State University. Currently serving as the Ida E. King Distinguished Visiting Professor of Holocaust Studies at the Richard Stockton College in Galloway, New Jersey, he may be contacted via lawrence.baron@sdjewishworld.com San Diego Jewish World points out to new readers that this column is satire, and nothing herein should be taken literally.