To be clear, I’m not arguing for a reoccupation of Iraq: I was one of a tiny number of conservatives who opposed the original invasion, precisely because I thought it would weaken our authority and credibility. Al-Baghdadi would like nothing more than to draw the United States into a ground war and so, as he hopes, trigger the End of Days. That is the likely purpose — to the extent they can be said to have a strategic purpose — of the hostage murders.

I am arguing, though, for a more assertive attitude in general at home and abroad. What do people in the Middle East see when they look at the West? A group of indebted, sclerotic, apologetic nations, in thrall to the ruling dogma of multiculturalism. A civilization whose highest public virtue seems to be not courage or integrity or patriotism, but a determination to avoid offending minorities. Nations with the best military hardware on the planet which have just been comprehensively outmaneuvered by a paramilitary gang Soviet nostalgics in the Donets Basin. Is it really so hard to see why some troubled young men prefer the demanding creed of al-Baghdadi and his followers?

Some of our values are beyond argument: free speech, free association, separation of church and state, the equality of all adults before the law. We need to be ready to defend them, with force of argument and, if necessary, force of arms. Seriously: they’ll like us when we win.