Earlier this week, State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf had us befuddled when she stated that we have to go after the root causes for what leads people to join militant groups like ISIS.

She mentioned jobs as a long-term solution to the terror threat.Many feel Harf and the rest of the administration are living in a dream world when it comes to their global assessment of radical Islam.It's true that recognizing the root cause is vital but it's religion, not jobs, that propels the militants.By failing to recognize that radical Islamists want a holy war against the world, we are only setting ourselves up for future attacks.Retired Gen. Jack Keane, a television military analyst, warned that the ISIS-driven killings signal "a global jihad right before our eyes."There are some religious leaders who are standing up and calling the savagery for what it is a holy war.A day after the video was released showing the beheadings of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians, the Rev. Franklin Graham, who heads the Christian relief group Samaritan's Purse, called on Muslim leaders to condemn the beheadings.Graham said the graphic video, titled "A Message Signed With Blood to The Nation of the Cross" should be taken as a serious warning that a storm is coming and that "such acts of terror will only spread across Europe and the United States if they are ignored."Pope Francis also spoke on Monday at the Vatican, stating that the 21 Coptics were killed simply for the fact that they were Christians."The blood of our Christian brothers and sisters is a testimony which cries out to be heard," the Pope said. "It makes no difference whether they be Catholics, Orthodox, Copts or Protestants. They are Christians!"Even the ISIS madmen themselves have declared their intention to kill Christians.They referred to the Coptic Christian men they beheaded as "people of the cross."They also issued a threat to Rome.In a statement on the ISIS beheadings of Christians, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest referred to them only as "citizens" and "victims, but avoided using the words "Christian," "Islam" and "Muslim."Franklin Graham and talk show host Bill O'Reilly are among the most public American voices currently urging church leaders to tell congregants to make their voices heard in Washington about the ISIS threat.With people getting slaughtered daily, the West can't ignore this plague and hope it goes away.America tried that isolationist strategy 75 years ago as the Nazis were marching through Europe and the Japanese were advancing on an island hopping land-grab across the Pacific.By 1941, America found itself fighting a two-ocean world war.By JIM ZBICKtneditor@tnonline.com