As French commandos closed in on Mohamed Merah, he said he wanted to die “like a Mujihadeen.” Merah got his wish as he engaged in a gun battle which saw him fall to the ground from a balcony. So Merah will be greeted by 72 virgins. Or is that 72 raisins? Whatever awaits Merah, seven people who wanted to live are dead at his hands.

French authorities wanted to take Merah alive for obvious reasons. Was he working with others and if so what information did he have about them? How extensive is their network? Are their other plots being planned at this very moment? How are these plots these organized and financed? Of course, that information will have to come from other sources and by then more innocent people will have been killed.

President Obama has said we are not at war with Islam. But Islam, or at the very least a critical mass of it, is at war with us and by us, I mean Western civilization. Like all acts of violence motivated by Islamic fundamentalism, whether on a small scale or a large scale, this act was intended to paralyze people with terror and wonder when the next attack will take place.

Although Islamic fundamentalists who use violence want to terrorize the general population into submission with the random nature of their attacks, it is clear there are certain people who are the focus of their attention. As the shootings in France demonstrate much of the focus is on a) the military and b) Jews.

After all, this is not the first attack of this sort against military personnel as the 2009 shootings at Fort Hood, the two U.S. airmen shot and killed outside Frankfurt Airport last year and the soldier shot and killed in 2009 outside the military recruitment center in Arkansas demonstrate. Nor is it the first time Jews have been singled out for a portion of an attack as was the case at the Chabad-Lubavitch House during the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India in 2008.

The longer we insist on denying this, the longer it will take to vanquish this evil and the ideology which brought it about.