RUTHFULLY YOURS

The final planning for the terrorist attack in Paris last month might have taken place in the Molenbeek district of Brussels—but, like the massacre in San Bernardino, Calif., weeks later, the inspiration came from a continent away, in the self-proclaimed caliphate of Islamic State, or ISIS. The difference: ISIS directly engineered the Paris slaughter, while the San Bernardino killers appear to have simply taken cues from the terror group.

Even so, ISIS propagandists have been promising for months to bring the full panoply of their horror to Europe and the U.S. They began the Twitter hashtag #WeWillBurnAmerica. An article this spring in the official ISIS magazine, Dabiq, promised an attack that would make “any past operation,” including 9/11, look like a mere “squirrel shoot.”

Many in the West view Islamic State’s barbaric crimes—its genocidal campaign against the region’s Christians and Yazidis; its lovingly choreographed beheadings of innocent journalists and aid workers—with horrified bafflement. They see ISIS as an aberration that appeared last year as if out of nowhere. They have a vague idea that it is related to, or grew out of, al Qaeda.

My friend Ingrid Carlqvist, whom I had the great pleasure to see during my trip to Copenhagen for the Motoon anniversary, provides a round-up from Sweden of a month in multiculturalism. Scandinavia is much admired by Bernie Sanders and other liberal progressives as the natural end-point of civilized societies. Sanders et al neglect the most salient feature of these Nordic boutique states: They are highly developed societies with a small population (Sweden has just under ten million people, Denmark about five million) that until very recently was racially and culturally homogeneous and with the necessary high degree of social solidarity to sustain a welfare state. Importing large numbers of young men from the most institutionally misogynist societies on earth to live among blonde Swedish totty would be an unlikely recipe for social stability, but that’s no reason not to give it a go. Ingrid reports:

The Swedish Immigration Service sent out a press release, saying that it had hired close to a thousand additional employees since June. The Immigration Service now has over 7,000 employees, including hourly workers and consultants — double the 3,350 employees who worked there in 2012. Most of the new recruits work with the legal processing of asylum applications, but the units dealing with receiving migrants and filing their initial applications have also expanded considerably. As if the record influx of migrants this autumn were not crushing enough, the Immigration Service also had trouble retaining its staff.

What do the Swedish people get for doubling the size of their immigration service? Well, a lot of bonnie, bouncing, bearded infants:

Whistleblower Merit Wager revealed on her blog that administrators at the Immigration Service had all been ordered to “accept the claim that an applicant is a child, if he does not look as if he is over 40.”

This matters because, in most EU countries, a “child” gets a firmer grip on the public teat than a mere “refugee” adult does. A 17-year-old “refugee” is entitled to the same treatment in law as a 17-year-old child citizen. So every refugee is now 17 going on 18. In Jule Styne’s great show Gypsy, the aging child star is asked how old she is:

BABY JUNE: Nine, going on ten.

CRATCHITT: How long has that been going on?

In Sweden, tens of thousands of strapping Muslim men can keep it going on until they’re 39 going on 40. With all these kiddies running around, the playground is getting a little livelier than usual. Miss Carlqvist again:

New York, N.Y. — A sign with a flower outside the cathedral at what has to be one of Manhattan’s busiest intersections, 34th Street and Second Avenue, stands as a subtle reminder of genocide. One wonders how many diplomats on their way to and from the United Nations headquarters, VIPs on their way to or from one of the airports, and daily commuters have passed St. Vartan’s Cathedral this year without noticing the banner outside proclaiming, “Centennial of the Armenian Genocide: 1915 to 2015. United We Stand Against Genocide.” I confess, I had been among the passers-by until I finally stopped in to pray there for the persecuted during the Christmas octave — and before the centennial year was through.

Perhaps the banner would have more impact if it read, “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?”

That’s how Adolf Hitler made his case for invading Poland in 1939 — and seeking to rid the world of Poles.

Even 100 years on, the Armenian Genocide still goes largely unacknowledged throughout the world. As Philadelphia archbishop Charles J. Chaput put it in a speech last spring: “This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. Armenians were the first nation in the world to adopt Christianity, in a.d. 301. Starting in 1915, Turkish officials deliberately murdered more than 1 million members of Turkey’s Armenian minority. The ethnic and religious cleansing campaign went on into the 1920s. The victims were men, women, and children. And they were overwhelmingly Christian. Turkey has never acknowledged the genocide. It’s one of the worst unrepented crimes in history.”

“”This is why it’s so important not to just go after one organization called ISIS, but to recognize this radical Islamist ideology that’s driving ISIS, that’s driving al-Qaeda, al Nusra and these groups that go by other names. That’s the only way that we’re actually going to be able to defeat this threat.”

A congressional Iraq War veteran doubted that the gains made against ISIS in Ramadi will be able to hold.

Iraq claimed victory over ISIS in the capital of Anbar province, but sections of the city still remain under the control of Islamic State jihadists.

About 80 percent of the city that once housed 200,000 people is in ruins, Iraqi officials say.

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) told CNN that the question is, “Will this be able to be sustained?”

“And if you look at it, the battle was actually, I think, the easier question. The tougher question is, unless there is a plan in place for the Sunni territory to be governed and secured by the Sunni tribes, then I think the likelihood is very high that you will see an opening for ISIS to make their way back in,” Gabbard warned.