Pathetic though they may be, they DO seem well aware of Lidell Hart’s dictum on warfare; will is the deciding factor.

Just as with Hitler, and I suppose with so many threats in the past, what is needed was the WILL to fight, to show the enemy that there was no chance for easy victory.

Hitler sensed the Western powers would not fight, and even when war was declared, they remained reluctant to fully grapple with him until France fell.

It was not the Third Reich’s tanks or planes or soldiers who garnered their success; it was the will to use them decisively and the lack of the same sentiment among his opponents.

It took 3 major powers to defeat him, and while their massive amounts of armament and soldiers helped, it was the steeled determination that Hitler had to go at any cost that decided the final outcome.

So, give the Islamists their due; as you have pointed out yourself, much of the West no longer believes in itself, moreover, a collective eats at its soul, saying its sins far outweigh its virtues and must be destroyed.

The jihadists smell the rot, in some part they have helped promote the decay, and they believe they will be there to take control by default when the Western body collapses.

They may be pathetic now, but when they start seizing formally Western nations and converting them to the cause, they won’t seem as impotent.

I still think we’ll win, but I shudder at what the world will look like when that battle is over.