Mike's America: For France, For the U.S. a New Call to Urgency. War Has Been Declared. Will We Fight or Will We Wait for a Worse Attack?

UPDATES: Syrian Refugees Arriving in U.S.

NY Post's Goodwin: Obama should lead or GET OUT! I'd go further. I'd even let him keep the plane and the helicopter if he would just GO and take Biden with him!

Warning, graphic image:

Most news agencies are only showing a pixelated version of this photograph from inside the Bataclan theater where so many died. The last thing the world needs now is yet another whitewash about the true evil of the horror perpetrated in Paris so I challenge readers, particularly those who continue to support Obama's failed policies to combat ISIS, to look at this photo.

Obama Adviser: Obama meant ISIS had been "contained" in the "geographic sense."

More spin from the White House in the wake of Obama's claim early Friday that ISIS was "contained." Now, Ben Rhodes, the same White House aide who passed out instructions for governement officials to make the false claim that a You Tube video was to blame for the attack in Benghazi that killed four Americans is now telling us that the President was misunderstood. Obama apparently meant, according to Rhodes, that ISIS has been contained geographically.

Really? Here's a map courtesy of the New York Times showing recent ISIS attacks. DOES THIS LOOK CONTAINED IN ANY SENSE OF THE WORD?

Sorry the Graphic above is a bit squished. See the full size version here.

First Wave of Syrian Refugees Begin to Arrive in New Orleans

We're also increasing the number of Syrian and other refugees we admit to the U.S. to 100,000 per year for the next two years.
— President Obama (@POTUS) September 28, 2015

#end of updates#

At least one American is among the dead!

The Daily Mail has a timeline of the attacks and maps.

The Los Angeles Times has a running update on new information from the Paris attacks. Summarizing at the time of this writing:

129 dead, more than 350 injured, 99 in critical condition. 89 died in the concert hall.

One American, Nohemi Gonzalez, 23 a student from California has been reported among the dead. No word on how many other Americans may have been injured.

Apparently not all the dead have identified as Parisians go to social media asking if anyone has seen their friend or family member.

Emergency workers aid survivors surrounded by the dead at a scene outside Paris restaurant.
Full size image here.

Bodies littered the streets of some Paris neighborhoods last night. Today blood stained streets and sidewalks, and bullet ridden buildings remain a very visible symbol of an act of war.

Hundreds of Parisians lined up on Saturday to donate blood as local hospitals are short on supply.

Evidence points to an Islamist cell in Belgium as the source for the attack. Belgian authorities have made arrests.

ISIS has claimed responsibility calling the attack "the first of the storm."

There were three coordinated teams of attackers. Eight terrorists died. Seven in suicide bombings and one by police. One is believed to be just 15 years old. Another was carrying a Syrian passport and had arrived in Greece as a refugee in October.

Accomplices may still be at large in Paris including an explosives expert. One report suggests the attackers had young males stationed as lookouts with cell phones to alert them to police.

French President Hollande vowed "[W]e are going to lead a war which will be pitiless."

Hours before the attacks the French announced they would be sending their sole aircraft carrier, Charles de Gaulle to the Persian Gulf to fight ISIS.

A statement from the Vatican declares: "This is an attack on peace for all humanity, and it requires a decisive, supportive response on the part of all of us as we counter the spread the homicidal hatred in all of its forms."

Meanwhile, in the U.S.

Obama pledged to stand with the French and "to bring these terrorists to justice." Sound familiar? He said exactly the same thing after our diplomats in Benghazi were killed. Only one has been captured and the terrorist cell responsible remains.

Earlier on Friday in an interview with ABC's Good Morning America Obama told George Stephanopoulos that ISIS is not getting stronger and that "we have contained them." Just as ridiculous as when he dismissed the threat calling ISIS the "JV team."

Obama Administration officials want to expand and expedite Syrian refugee entry into the United States. Officials want to admit MORE than the original 10,000 set for 2016. This despite FBI warnings that they do not have the resources required to vet these refugees, many of whom are young men as were the attackers in Paris.

A new sense of unity, urgency, ACTION?

Following each of these major attacks we hear the same words sadly followed by too few deeds. World leaders marched in solidarity in Paris after the Charlie Hebdo attacks (Obama was notable by his absence). But nothing happened. Now, a repeat of vows to bring terrorists to justice and wage war against ISIS.

I'm reminded of the words of Winston Churchill, who in writing his Nobel Prize winning memoir of the Second World War traced the "line of milestones to disaster. Here is a catalogue of surrenders, at first when all was easy and later when things were harder," culminating in the ultimate choice:

If you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly you may come to the moment when you will have to fight withall the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than live as slaves.
-- Winston Churchill, The Second World War, Volume 1: The Gathering Storm

Will we fight now, knowing victory is harder than had we begun earlier when Obama declared ISIS the "JV team." Or will we wait as the death toll mounts and we face a choice much more difficult than the one today?

UPDATE: Images of Solidarity. Let's hope it's not just symbolic!

West Point U.S. Army Football Team carries the French tricolor flag onto the field
behind the Stars and Stripes at a game at West Point vs. Tulane. as a message of solidarity.