The Lessons of Casablanca

And in January 1943, just two months after the Anglo-American landings in North Africa, President Franklin D. Roosevelt met with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in, yes, Casablanca, where he declared his war aim.

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It was not a “ceasefire,” an “exit strategy,” or a “responsible conclusion.”

Instead, he demanded that Germany, Italy, and Japan – the Axis Powers – surrender, and that they do so “unconditionally.” …

He made clear that “unconditional surrender” did not imply the destruction of the German, Italian, and Japanese peoples. But he was intent on “the destruction of the philosophies in those countries which are based on conquest and the subjugation of other people.”

By “philosophies,” he meant what today we call ideologies or, in the case of Islamists, theologies.

[I wrote about this last week on Pearl Harbor Day, and also lamented the lost clarity in dealing with evil. — Ed]

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