In his May 23 speech at the National Defense University, President Barack Obama spoke of “a common ideology” fueling Islamic terrorism and the need for “all elements of national power to win a battle of wills and ideas.”

We will have to forgive Deborah Wakai if she’s not buying that message. 

Just before the president’s speech, officials at the U.S. embassy in Abuja turned down Deborah’s application for a visa. She is one of four Nigerian victims of terrorism who applied to travel to the United States to attend a trauma counseling session this July.

Following the hacking death of a British soldier by two alleged Islamic extremists, Prime Minister David Cameron said, “There is nothing in Islam that justifies this truly dreadful act.”

Winston Churchill thought otherwise, but he lived in a time before political correctness ran amok and drew on his personal experiences serving in the Sudan and in the Crimean War.

In the summer of 1939, just before Hitler invaded Poland, a songwriting team produced “There’ll Always Be an England.” When the London Blitz began in 1940, the song was everywhere, helping to inspire Britain’s “finest hour.” Night after night, when bombs fell and sirens wailed, ordinary Englishmen and -women determined with their prime minister that they would never, never, never surrender. But the England that massed in spirited opposition to an outright assault is now giving away its nation piece by piece.

In a speech Thursday afternoon at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C., President Barack Obama defended his administration’s use of drone strikes to kill terrorist suspects, including U.S. citizens. Obama’s drone program has faced criticism for targeting secret terror suspects in countries like Pakistan and Yemen, and for causing civilian casualties and stressing political relations with Middle Eastern nations.