Assad’s destruction of Aleppo, the gassing of his one-time citizens and the barbarities of the Islamic State to human beings and to monuments, such as the Hellenistic city of Palmyra, follow directly from President Obama’s decision to leave the various Muslim forces free to do their worst to each other

The belief that their primary identity was French had put their lives at risk for no purpose. They couldn’t imagine that the Germans and a good many French made no such distinctions about Jews and were determined to kill off the lot