‘Take the War to the Enemy,’ Foreign Policy Expert Urges After Paris Terror Attack

The Heritage Foundation’s Nile Gardiner warned last night that the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attacks are likely to extend beyond Paris if the West does not “take the war to the enemy.”

“There is no doubt about it: We are at war against militant Islamists who seek our destruction and the destruction of everything that we stand for,” Gardiner, director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, told Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren.

Gardiner emphasized the importance of every leader in the West coming together to fight against the Islamist terrorists who are compelled by extremist ideology.

To accomplish this, he said the West needs “robust leadership,” not the appeasement policies President Obama has tended to implement.

“This is a war really for the survival of our civilization against vicious individuals who seek our destruction,” Gardiner said. “We simply cannot give into these individuals.”

Europe is currently experiencing high terror threat levels because of the vast number of radical extremists emigrating to Iraq and Syria, Gardiner said.

The “hardened radicals” receive training from terrorist groups such as the Islamic State and then slip back into their home countries to plan “atrocities” such as yesterday’s Charlie Hebdo attack, Gardiner explained.

He called it a “massive” security issue that extends far beyond France.

“Europe is at war,” he said. “The free world is at war against a vicious enemy.”