But the sight of Hezbollah in South America, as with the spectacle of Soviet agents and the Nazis before them, really underscores the folly of imagining that totalitarian ideologies can be contained by ignoring them. If you do not struggle against them on their turf, they will come and struggle against the US in the Western Hemisphere, including Canada. Of course, a great many will continue to believe that apologizing energetically enough and handing out compensation to every extended hand will keep totalitarianism at bay. I am sure it will be tried; perhaps even by the incoming administration.

But it won’t work. In the end militant Islam is a global challenge, like Communism and Nazism before it. You can beat it or be beaten by it, but you can’t ignore it.