Well friends, we have another crazy damned bunch of hellions stomping around in the Middle East.   (This being a family newspaper, I’m not allowed to use more colorful and appropriate descriptive terms.) In fact, they’re not really crazy in the strict definition of that term because they have a firm grasp on reality.

Every time they behead someone, every time they massacre a couple hundred innocent people, every time they heinously murder a small child, every time they rape captured women and every time a female is forced to undergo circumcision, ISIS knows exactly what it’s doing.

Of course, such atrocities aren’t limited only to an extreme faction of the Muslim faith. Throughout history, followers of every religion – at least I’m not aware of any exceptions – have committed equally barbaric acts. And I’m not speaking solely of ancient times.

Look back no further than World War II. Japanese soldiers certainly weren’t devoutly religious but, if asked what faith they “practiced,” most would have said Buddhism. Yet, when they sacked Nanking – historically, it’s often called the “Rape of Nanking” – they beheaded captives, bayoneted Chinese babies and performed abominable acts of “exploratory” surgery on live prisoners of war, without anesthetic. And the German troops who slaughtered millions upon millions of Jews and Eastern Europeans in extermination camps would probably have called themselves Christians. A mere 40 years ago, “Christian” soldiers coldly massacred more than a thousand Muslim men, women and children in Bosnia.

How do you account for so-called civilized people committing such atrocities? Don’t ask me. I certainly can’t explain it. However, I can point out at least one key component that contributes to such despicable acts: the enemy must be reduced to subhuman evolutionary levels or become the very embodiment of evil, the devil himself. Or both.

And this is precisely how ISIS views the “infidel.” Anyone who doesn’t subscribe to their blasphemous and corrupt interpretation of the Muslim faith is deserving of extermination, like so many rats. Make no mistake, ISIS doesn’t believe in any religious, political or behavioral freedom and they have absolutely no tolerance for any beliefs other than their own.

Of course, at this stage of the game, ISIS only has, at most, a mere 50,000 members and only has standard military issue weapons. Really now, they can’t possibly win an all out war with the Western world. Though “God is great” fanatics might explode suicide bombs in rush-hour subways and national shrines, such shocking events don’t pose a serious threat to the stability and existence of America or any European nation.

But God help us if they ever get an atomic bomb or several vials of bubonic plague.