Presidential Address

After the second devastating attack on American soil by Islamic radicals, President Rutledge addressed the nation with words of encouragement and resolve. He was as positive as he could be under the circumstances.

But he ended the televised address with this:

"And to the terrorists responsible for this revolting act of cowardice, I say this. America will never stop until we have hunted every last one of you down. We will go to the far corners of the earth draining every swamp and turning over every rock along the way. And when we find you -and we will find you - we shall use every means at our disposal to visit upon you a death one thousand times more hideous than that which you have delivered to our doorstep today.

America has defeated the greatest evils of the modern world, and it will defeat the scourge of radical Islamic fanaticism as well.

Thank you, and God bless America."

The light atop the main camera switched off, but no one spoke... Not even the floor director whose job it was to inform the president that they were safely off the air.

"Am I clear?" asked the president.

The irony was not lost upon the director who said, "I'd say you were crystal clear, sir."

"We're not going to hide behind politically correct labels anymore."

The press secretary cleared his throat and said, "I think you made that abundantly clear. Along with the fact that the Christian West is now officially at war with Islam."

"I said radical Islamic fundamentalism," replied the president. "I said what every single American and every single Western world leader wanted to say and needed to say - radical Islam must be stamped out. Everyone tiptoes around the elephant in the middle of the room while the elephant continues to eat and grow bigger and bigger right before our eyes."

"What about regular Muslims who might see this as a slight against them and their religion?' asked the chief of staff.

The president scoffed, "To hell with them. Mainstream Islam has done nothing to stop this cancer from metastasizing within our midst. They haven't even wholeheartedly condemned it. As far as I'm concerned, they don't get a pass anymore. No more sitting on the fence waiting to see which way this all goes. Either they're part of the solution or they're part of the problem. Period."


That's the condensed version of a scene from Brad Thor's Takedown.

I'm reminded of the movie Three Days of the Condor in which the CIA director (John Housman) talks about how he has been around since WWI.

Higgins asks, "Do you miss that kind of action?"

The CIA Director responds, "I miss that kind of clarity."