In the aftermath of Friday's terrorist attacks in Paris, a troubling message circulated on some Facebook pages in the Madison County area.
The message showed an image of a nuclear weapon exploding into a mushroom cloud and noted that Japan surrendered after atom bombs were dropped near the end of World War II. The message then suggested that the Islamic State should be hit with nuclear weapons.
Most troubling, the page received many Likes and comments agreeing that the United States should, basically, bomb the hell out of the Middle East.
It doesn't take a genius to realize that the Islamic State and other terror groups want this sort of a reaction from the West. When our bombs take innocent lives and destroy villages, it both broadens and congeals hatred of the United States, thereby fomenting zealotry and spawning new generations of terrorists.
The Paris attacks Friday were sickening, an abomination against humanity. The natural reaction is shock, soon followed by sadness, and then by anger.
Human nature is to lash out when we've been hurt. But discretion trumps a violent, knee-jerk reaction that would wreak indiscriminate destruction.
The Islamic State should be punished, yes. But the overarching goal should be to render it incapable of its trademark atrocities. Accomplishing this difficult task will take a combination of intelligence gathering, aggressive military action with surgical precision and political and humanitarian connection with the masses of people living in Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East who are not terrorists.
The terrible reality of our times is that, as a result of our military actions, some innocent civilians — including children — will be killed. But our love of humanity demands that we minimize such casualties, taking care to avoid civilian deaths whenever possible.
This is what sets us apart, fundamentally, from the terrorists — our basic regard for human life.