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TERMS OF USE | PRIVACY POLICY

Live

Glenn's Show Prep

O'Reilly Discusses 'Killing the Rising Sun' and Censored Japanese Atrocities

September 16, 2016
Lori Hanes

Writer

Bill O'Reilly, host of The O'Reilly Factor on Fox News, joined The Glenn Beck Program on Thursday to talk about his latest book in the Killing series, Killing the Rising Sun: How America Vanquished World War II Japan. The sixth book in the massively popular series sold 103,000 copies its very first day of release.

Read below or listen to the full segment for answers to these scintillating questions:

• Did Glenn take it easy on O'Reilly or make his life a living hell?

• Does O'Reilly have a brown, blue or black belt in karate?

• Did Glenn actually read Killing the Rising Sun?

• What horrific atrocities did the Japanese commit that compare to the Nazis and ISIS?

• Why was dropping the atomic bomb the compassionate way to end the war?

• Which living presidents would or would not have dropped the bomb, according to O'Reilly?

• Will O'Reilly's next book be Killing Harambe?

Listen to this segment from The Glenn Beck Program:

Below is a rush transcript of this segment, it might contain errors:

GLENN: Let's bring, the one, the only, the legend, the man, Mr. Bill O'Reilly.

BILL: Beck, is that ABBA singing your little theme song there? I thought they were retired.

GLENN: No.

PAT: First thing out of his mouth, right?

GLENN: I mean, right out of the chute.

BILL: I was getting on my dancing machine on here.

GLENN: Look what happens. Right out of the chute.

So, Bill, let me ask you this.

BILL: Sure.

GLENN: I have been threatened by Sean Hannity using his karate on me.

BILL: Yeah.

GLENN: Do you have a brown belt or a blue belt or a black belt?

BILL: Only in intellectual prowess.

GLENN: Okay. So there's no threats coming your way?

BILL: Never, Beck. You know, you're my pal. Why would I do that?

GLENN: Well, let's not exaggerate.

(laughter)

GLENN: So Bill is off killing someone else. A new book. This one is Killing the Rising Sun. He's run out of people to kill. Now he's killing an entire nation of people.

PAT: Wow. Wow.

GLENN: The hatred never stops with Bill O'Reilly.

BILL: Yeah, I know.

GLENN: The book is Killing of the Rising Sun: How America Vanquished World War II Japan.

So, Bill, what's in here that, you know, makes it worth reading?

BILL: Well, first of all, when the book was released on Tuesday, the first day out, it sold 103,000 copies.

GLENN: A lot of stupid people. Why -- what's in it?

BILL: You said a lot of stupid people?

GLENN: I mean, why -- I mean, what's in there?

BILL: Come on.

GLENN: I mean, you can get -- you know, I know the power of Bill O'Reilly. He hypnotizes you. He looks --

BILL: Look, this is the sixth book in the series. If they weren't any good, believe me, 100,000 people wouldn't be buying them the first day.

Your question about what you learn is a good one because history has been kind of trampled by boring people who just recite things that they've been told.

GLENN: Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

BILL: This one puts you on Iwo Jima, Saipan, and Hiroshima. You, the reader, will experience what happened there. And that's the formula that makes the Killing book successful, is that it's just not a resuscitation of facts. It's drama and real people.

And our research centers around Marines and soldiers and Naval people who wrote letters, not pinheads and, you know, who did all this research about -- you know, talking to this one and that one. We got down with the folks.

And one of the compelling stories that I know you'll enjoy once you get around to having someone read the book to you --

GLENN: No.

BILL: -- is how a woman survived Hiroshima by being three minutes late to her job. And that's the kind of stuff we have.

GLENN: Well, I read that story because I did read the book.

BILL: Did you really?

GLENN: No, I'm lying completely.

BILL: Not completely.

GLENN: Right. But I thought I'd give it a shot here for a second.

No, Bill, here's the thing that I really like your perspective on. What is -- why do we not know who the Japanese really were?

BILL: Because it's not politically correct --

PAT: Uh-huh.

GLENN: But when did that --

BILL: -- for the public school education system to actually tell the urchins the truth about their country.

GLENN: So, but when did that -- when did that happen? Because World War II, you were about 70.

BILL: Yeah.

GLENN: So what --

(chuckling)

-- when did -- did we know during World War II that they were slaughtering 20 million Chinese, that they were, you know, having games of butchery? Did we know those things at the time?

BILL: Yeah, it was reported in the Chinese atrocities in the '30s, the major newspapers in America did report that the Japanese went in and murdered people, raped women, you know, en masse. That was recorded.

But then when World War II started, unlike the European theater where there was a lot of American reporters, there were very few in the Pacific theater. It was, number one, too dangerous to drop them on the islands. And, number two, MacArthur who was in charge of the Pacific theater as you know, didn't want the American public to see what kind of horror was unfolding on these islands because there were no prisoners on either side. Nobody took prisoners.

So they did not want that reported. And therefore, there was a news blackout. And to this day, people really don't know what happened and how Japan was defeated, which is why I wrote the book.

GLENN: Yeah. We've done an interview on the book before, and a much more serious one than this. But I can't take another 15 minutes of you being serious.

(chuckling)

But you and I did an interview. And I did an episode that's going to air soon on the show that I do called The Vault, where we're talking about World War II and the Japanese. And I don't know if you're aware of Unit 731. Bill, are you aware of that?

BILL: No, I am not.

GLENN: Okay. This is unbelievable. Unit 731, we're doing the same kinds of things that the nasty Nazi doctors were doing. They were -- they were doing live vivisections.

BILL: This is the Japanese?

GLENN: The Japanese were doing it.

BILL: Right. Right. Right.

GLENN: We excused all of them. And said, "Hey, in exchange for the research, we won't try you." I'm just puzzled by why we don't look at the communists and their atrocities. We don't look at the Japanese and their atrocities. But we focus all on the German and then we call our --

PAT: Us.

GLENN: Us saving the world from those nightmares, atrocities.

BILL: Look, the problem with the reportage after Japan was defeated is that there was censorship. There was censorship in the European theater. But the European theater was so in-your-face when they liberated the concentration camps and then Hitler was this evil icon -- they didn't have that in Japan. MacArthur was sympathetic to the Japanese people. He had a long history with his father of dealing with them.

So he didn't want to crush them like Patton did. He wanted to defeat them. And, by the way, MacArthur was against dropping the atom bomb because he wanted to invade and get the glory of the victory himself.

GLENN: And just to prove to you that I did read the book, you talk about him being in Manila at the time. You want to describe that?

BILL: Right. Well, MacArthur was not a battlefield commander, per se. He stayed behind the lines and was a glory hound. Not like -- it was totally the opposite for Patton, but MacArthur was a good tactician.

I mean, I think Nimitz was probably better. But the combination of the Army and Navy commanders, you know, put the Japanese on the defensive from the beginning.

However, the question is: Why were we leaning towards the Japanese? There's two reasons why the United States, Harry Truman, and MacArthur didn't punish them the way the Germans were punished.

Number one, the Japanese people pretty much cooperated. They didn't give us a hard time. They surrendered. And once it was over, it was over.

Number two, we did execute Tojo and a number of other war criminals, but there wasn't that hunt that there was for the SS. Because, again, they were so demonized -- the concentration camps were so overwhelmingly emotional, that the authorities had to do that. And Patton got in trouble because he didn't really want to go in and take apart the German society.

But in Japan, MacArthur got away with pretty much leaving the status quo. Hirohito actually kept his job as emperor. They didn't remove him. He didn't have any power, but they didn't want any trouble with the Japanese. They wanted them to fall into line.

GLENN: Yeah. And they actually thought -- because the peasants were so convinced that they were winning, that after that last bomb, they actually thought that there was a chance that the peasants would take over the military and continue the war. We didn't know until the very last minute.

BILL: Well, they weren't going to surrender. There's no doubt about that. The Japanese were not going to surrender. And if anybody thinks they were, then you're just a fool. Because even after Hiroshima, they didn't surrender. And they were arming children, women --

GLENN: Right. Yeah, last man --

BILL: Even though Tokyo was destroyed literally by conventional bombing, that still didn't break the Japanese spirit. There still wasn't a coup d'etat against Hirohito. There was an attempt, but it was fought back.

GLENN: Do you think this was -- do you think history is against America or against atomic weapons or both? Because the firebombing -- hang on just a second.

BILL: Go ahead.

GLENN: The firebombing in Tokyo --

PAT: Killed more people.

GLENN: Killed many more people.

BILL: Yeah.

GLENN: And a group of homeless the size of Chicago came out of that city. A hundred twenty-five miles was destroyed by firebombing, and yet you don't hear that.

BILL: No. Because the other bomb is such a specter.

GLENN: Right.

PAT: Uh-huh.

BILL: That people lock into that. And, by the way, when you're hearing North Korea testing and Iranian nukes, the nuclear weapons we have today are 100,000 times more powerful than the atom bomb.

So when you read Killing the Rising Sun and you're imagining the horror that took place there, I mean, it's unspeakable what would happen now if they ever drop these things.

But you basically have -- the reason why I wrote this book was because of Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Obama's former pastor, when he said after 9/11, justifying the attack, that America's chickens have come home to roost because we dropped the bombs on Japan.

That so offended me. I was so appalled, I said, "You know what, some day I'm going to write a book and correct the record on this." And that's how that book got on the board.

GLENN: I will tell you, Bill, it is a fantastic book. And what you've done with the presidents afterwards -- you've gone back to the living presidents. And Bill Clinton wouldn't participate and neither would Barack Obama. But the other ones would participate.

BILL: Right.

GLENN: And you asked them, "Would you have done it?" And you don't believe that Bill Clinton answered that because he doesn't want to have to answer to the left. Doesn't want controversy now.

BILL: Right. You know, I asked five living presidents to give me a personal letter whether they would have supported Truman and dropped the bomb. The two Bushes and Jimmy Carter did. And they all said they would have dropped the atom bomb. Obama did not. Just speculation, just on my part, just speculation, I just don't think he would have dropped it.

GLENN: No.

PAT: I don't either.

GLENN: I don't either.

JEFFY: No way.

PAT: Do you think Bill Clinton would have?

BILL: Yes. But I didn't -- you absolutely hit it. Clinton didn't want to, you know, raise any controversy on the left by saying that. And so he passed.

PAT: Uh-huh.

GLENN: You know, it is -- and you point this out in the book -- it was the compassionate thing to do. Millions would have died on both sides. Millions.

BILL: Yes. No doubt.

PAT: Didn't they estimate 4 million Japanese -- four million Japanese were saved by a non-invasion?

BILL: Yeah. Because they were -- you have to understand the mindset. It was a lot like the Nazi mindset.

GLENN: More like ISIS, I think.

BILL: Well, it's the same thing. I always say ISIS is the Hitler-lite. I mean, that's what they are. There's no difference between the Third Reich and the SS and all that and ISIS. There's no difference.

But the mindset is, look, we're willing to give our life for the emperor, Hirohito, living god. And wait until you see this guy. When you read the book, what Hirohito is really like -- and this is the living god? I mean, it's worse than Henry VIII, founding a religion in England. I mean, come on.

GLENN: No. It's pretty nuts.

STU: Bill, you bring up the Nazi side of this. And, you know, Hitler thought, as we're losing -- as we're retreating, I want the bridges blown up. I want all of our infrastructure destroyed so the enemy doesn't get a hold of it.

And there were people there, like Albert Speer, who said, "Hey, wait a minute I'm not going to do that," and defied his orders at the last minute, even with all that dedication. Were there people like that on the Japanese side?

BILL: Not that we know of. Because it was -- the Japanese secret police were more effective than the Gestapo. And if there were any dissenters, they were beheaded immediately.

GLENN: It was bad.

BILL: You know, that society was so tight and so closed.

But one of the interesting parts about Killing the Rising Sun is the reason that FDR fast-tracked the atom bomb research in New Mexico was because Hitler was doing it. And they feared -- they being the American authorities, they feared the Third Reich would get this bomb. And, of course, if they had gotten it, they would have used it. And that's why Hitler was allowed to hang on by his generals. Because his generals knew that they had these super weapons in development. And that would turn the thing around, which is why they fought harder than they might have.

But the Japanese were a different story. The Japanese were so fanatical and so crazy that they were going to die for the emperor because that's their code, Bushido, you know, you have to die for the emperor. And they were. And that includes little kids, women, everybody.

GLENN: Bill, always good to have you on. And, well, no, it's not. But this time, it was good to have you on. And I appreciate it.

BILL: You know, I really appreciate you having me on your fine program, and I want you to do me one favor. Will you do one favor?

GLENN: Thanks, brother. I'll try.

BILL: All right. Say hello to ABBA for me. I really am a big fan.

GLENN: All right. Bill O'Reilly.

STU: So you actually did read the book this time?

GLENN: Not one word of it. Not one word. And I didn't want to break my record of Bill O'Reilly books at this point.

PAT: It sounds great. It sounds great.

GLENN: Oh, it is. It is. I've read enough of it. And he was on with me. We're doing a deal on The Vault, where he's a guest on The Vault. And we're talking about this. And I have artifacts that he had never seen. We took him out. We have 8,000 artifacts, historic artifacts in The Vault. And next week is the premiere episode. Next Wednesday on TheBlaze TV.

And in an upcoming episode, we talk about this. And when you hear who the Japanese were -- you've never heard these stories before.

PAT: Yeah.

GLENN: You've never heard them before. And there's -- if you knew them, there would be no -- not a second of thought about, should we have dropped the bomb? And one reason -- he wrote this book. The other reason why -- it's the same reason I'm doing, like, The Vault and His Story. I'm doing these two shows because your kids are going to go into class, and they're going to have to -- they'll be asked this question. The only thing on Common Core is about the United States dropping the bomb. That's all they included in the Common Core tests for World War II.

PAT: And no context.

GLENN: No context at all.

PAT: Yeah.

GLENN: Your kids have to have context. And they will not find it in schoolbooks. So Bill O'Reilly's book and also The Vault that's on Wednesdays on TheBlaze TV.

PAT: And get this one. Because Bill is running out of dead people to kill. So...

GLENN: Oh, no. His next thing -- I don't know. Who is he going to be killing next? What country? What continent?

JEFFY: Milky Way.

PAT: He's killed all the people, now he's killing entire countries. It will have to be the planet.

GLENN: The death ray -- the death star of books.

STU: I believe he's going to be killing Harambe. That is the next book.

JEFFY: Oh, nice.

GLENN: All of a sudden we're all going to say, "I feel like there were millions of voices that just cried out." Yeah, Bill O'Reilly just published another book.

Featured Image:

Why do Americans feel so empty?

Mario Tama / Staff | Getty Images

Anxiety, anger, and chronic dissatisfaction signal a country searching for meaning. Without truth and purpose, politics becomes a dangerous substitute for identity.

We have built a world overflowing with noise, convenience, and endless choice, yet something essential has slipped out of reach. You can sense it in the restless mood of the country, the anxiety among young people who cannot explain why they feel empty, in the angry confusion that dominates our politics.

We have more wealth than any nation in history, but the heart of the culture feels strangely malnourished. Before we can debate debt or elections, we must confront the reality that we created a world of things, but not a world of purpose.

You cannot survive a crisis you refuse to name, and you cannot rebuild a world whose foundations you no longer understand.

What we are living through is not just economic or political dysfunction. It is the vacuum that appears when a civilization mistakes abundance for meaning.

Modern life is stuffed with everything except what the human soul actually needs. We built systems to make life faster, easier, and more efficient — and then wondered why those systems cannot teach our children who they are, why they matter, or what is worth living for.

We tell the next generation to chase success, influence, and wealth, turning childhood into branding. We ask kids what they want to do, not who they want to be. We build a world wired for dopamine rather than dignity, and then we wonder why so many people feel unmoored.

When everything is curated, optimized, and delivered at the push of a button, the question “what is my life for?” gets lost in the static.

The crisis beneath the headlines

It is not just the young who feel this crisis. Every part of our society is straining under the weight of meaninglessness.

Look at the debt cycle — the mathematical fate no civilization has ever escaped once it crosses a threshold that we seem to have already blown by. While ordinary families feel the pressure, our leaders respond with distraction, with denial, or by rewriting the very history that could have warned us.

You cannot survive a crisis you refuse to name, and you cannot rebuild a world whose foundations you no longer understand.

We have entered a cultural moment where the noise is so loud that it drowns out the simplest truths. We are living in a country that no longer knows how to hear itself think.

So people go searching. Some drift toward the false promise of socialism, some toward the empty thrill of rebellion. Some simply check out. When a culture forgets what gives life meaning, it becomes vulnerable to every ideology that offers a quick answer.

The quiet return of meaning

And yet, quietly, something else is happening. Beneath the frustration and cynicism, many Americans are recognizing that meaning does not come from what we own, but from what we honor. It does not rise from success, but from virtue. It does not emerge from noise, but from the small, sacred things that modern life has pushed to the margins — the home, the table, the duty you fulfill, the person you help when no one is watching.

The danger is assuming that this rediscovery happens on its own. It does not.

Reorientation requires intention. It requires rebuilding the habits and virtues that once held us together. It requires telling the truth about our history instead of rewriting it to fit today’s narratives. And it requires acknowledging what has been erased: that meaning is inseparable from God’s presence in a nation’s life.

Harold M. Lambert / Contributor | Getty Images

Where renewal begins

We have built a world without stillness, and then we wondered why no one can hear the questions that matter. Those questions remain, whether we acknowledge them or not. They do not disappear just because we drown them in entertainment or noise. They wait for us, and the longer we ignore them, the more disoriented we become.

Meaning is still available. It is found in rebuilding the smallest, most human spaces — the places that cannot be digitized, globalized, or automated. The home. The family. The community.

These are the daily virtues that do not trend on social media, but that hold a civilization upright. If we want to repair this country, we begin there, exactly where every durable civilization has always begun: one virtue at a time, one tradition at a time, one generation at a time.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

The Bubba Effect erupts as America’s power brokers go rogue

Gary Hershorn / Contributor | Getty Images

When institutions betray the public’s trust, the country splits, and the spiral is hard to stop.

Something drastic is happening in American life. Headlines that should leave us stunned barely register anymore. Stories that once would have united the country instead dissolve into silence or shrugs.

It is not apathy exactly. It is something deeper — a growing belief that the people in charge either cannot or will not fix what is broken.

When people feel ignored or betrayed, they will align with anyone who appears willing to fight on their behalf.

I call this response the Bubba effect. It describes what happens when institutions lose so much public trust that “Bubba,” the average American minding his own business, finally throws his hands up and says, “Fine. I will handle it myself.” Not because he wants to, but because the system that was supposed to protect him now feels indifferent, corrupt, or openly hostile.

The Bubba effect is not a political movement. It is a survival instinct.

What triggers the Bubba effect

We are watching the triggers unfold in real time. When members of Congress publicly encourage active duty troops to disregard orders from the commander in chief, that is not a political squabble. When a federal judge quietly rewrites the rules so one branch of government can secretly surveil another, that is not normal. That is how republics fall. Yet these stories glided across the news cycle without urgency, without consequence, without explanation.

When the American people see the leadership class shrug, they conclude — correctly — that no one is steering the ship.

This is how the Bubba effect spreads. It is not just individuals resisting authority. It is sheriffs refusing to enforce new policies, school boards ignoring state mandates, entire communities saying, “We do not believe you anymore.” It becomes institutional, cultural, national.

A country cracking from the inside

This effect can be seen in Dearborn, Michigan. In the rise of fringe voices like Nick Fuentes. In the Epstein scandal, where powerful people could not seem to locate a single accountable adult. These stories are different in content but identical in message: The system protects itself, not you.

When people feel ignored or betrayed, they will align with anyone who appears willing to fight on their behalf. That does not mean they suddenly agree with everything that person says. It means they feel abandoned by the institutions that were supposed to be trustworthy.

The Bubba effect is what fills that vacuum.

The dangers of a faithless system

A republic cannot survive without credibility. Congress cannot oversee intelligence agencies if it refuses to discipline its own members. The military cannot remain apolitical if its chain of command becomes optional. The judiciary cannot defend the Constitution while inventing loopholes that erase the separation of powers.

History shows that once a nation militarizes politics, normalizes constitutional shortcuts, or allows government agencies to operate without scrutiny, it does not return to equilibrium peacefully. Something will give.

The question is what — and when.

The responsibility now belongs to us

In a healthy country, this is where the media steps in. This is where universities, pastors, journalists, and cultural leaders pause the outrage machine and explain what is at stake. But today, too many see themselves not as guardians of the republic, but of ideology. Their first loyalty is to narrative, not truth.

The founders never trusted the press more than the public. They trusted citizens who understood their rights, lived their responsibilities, and demanded accountability. That is the antidote to the Bubba effect — not rage, but citizenship.

How to respond without breaking ourselves

Do not riot. Do not withdraw. Do not cheer on destruction just because you dislike the target. That is how nations lose themselves. Instead, demand transparency. Call your representatives. Insist on consequences. Refuse to normalize constitutional violations simply because “everyone does it.” If you expect nothing, you will get nothing.

Do not hand your voice to the loudest warrior simply because he is swinging a bat at the establishment. You do not beat corruption by joining a different version of it. You beat it by modeling the country you want to preserve: principled, accountable, rooted in truth.

Adam Gray / Stringer | Getty Images

Every republic reaches a moment when historians will later say, “That was the warning.” We are living in ours. But warnings are gifts if they are recognized. Institutions bend. People fail. The Constitution can recover — if enough Americans still know and cherish it.

It does not take a majority. Twenty percent of the country — awake, educated, and courageous — can reset the system. It has happened before. It can happen again.

Wake up. Stand up. Demand integrity — from leaders, from institutions, and from yourself. Because the Bubba effect will not end until Americans reclaim the duty that has always belonged to them: preserving the republic for the next generation.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Warning: Stop letting TikTok activists think for you

Spencer Platt / Staff | Getty Images

Bad-faith attacks on Israel and AIPAC warp every debate. Real answers emerge only when people set aside scripts and ask what serves America’s long-term interests.

The search for truth has always required something very much in short supply these days: honesty. Not performative questions, not scripted outrage, not whatever happens to be trending on TikTok, but real curiosity.

Some issues, often focused on foreign aid, AIPAC, or Israel, have become hotbeds of debate and disagreement. Before we jump into those debates, however, we must return to a simpler, more important issue: honest questioning. Without it, nothing in these debates matters.

Ask questions because you want the truth, not because you want a target.

The phrase “just asking questions” has re-entered the zeitgeist, and that’s fine. We should always question power. But too many of those questions feel preloaded with someone else’s answer. If the goal is truth, then the questions should come from a sincere desire to understand, not from a hunt for a villain.

Honest desire for truth is the only foundation that can support a real conversation about these issues.

Truth-seeking is real work

Right now, plenty of people are not seeking the truth at all. They are repeating something they heard from a politician on cable news or from a stranger on TikTok who has never opened a history book. That is not a search for answers. That is simply outsourcing your own thought.

If you want the truth, you need to work for it. You cannot treat the world like a Marvel movie where the good guy appears in a cape and the villain hisses on command. Real life does not give you a neat script with the moral wrapped up in two hours.

But that is how people are approaching politics now. They want the oppressed and the oppressor, the heroic underdog and the cartoon villain. They embrace this fantastical framing because it is easier than wrestling with reality.

This framing took root in the 1960s when the left rebuilt its worldview around colonizers and the colonized. Overnight, Zionism was recast as imperialism. Suddenly, every conflict had to fit the same script. Today’s young activists are just recycling the same narrative with updated graphics. Everything becomes a morality play. No nuance, no context, just the comforting clarity of heroes and villains.

Bad-faith questions

This same mindset is fueling the sudden obsession with Israel, and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in particular. You hear it from members of Congress and activists alike: AIPAC pulls the strings, AIPAC controls the government, AIPAC should register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The questions are dramatic, but are they being asked in good faith?

FARA is clear. The standard is whether an individual or group acts under the direction or control of a foreign government. AIPAC simply does not qualify.

Here is a detail conveniently left out of these arguments: Dozens of domestic organizations — Armenian, Cuban, Irish, Turkish — lobby Congress on behalf of other countries. None of them registers under FARA because — like AIPAC — they are independent, domestic organizations.

If someone has a sincere problem with the structure of foreign lobbying, fair enough. Let us have that conversation. But singling out AIPAC alone is not a search for truth. It is bias dressed up as bravery.

Anadolu / Contributor | Getty Images

If someone wants to question foreign aid to Israel, fine. Let’s have that debate. But let’s ask the right questions. The issue is not the size of the package but whether the aid advances our interests. What does the United States gain? Does the investment strengthen our position in the region? How does it compare to what we give other nations? And do we examine those countries with the same intensity?

The real target

These questions reflect good-faith scrutiny. But narrowing the entire argument to one country or one dollar amount misses the larger problem. If someone objects to the way America handles foreign aid, the target is not Israel. The target is the system itself — an entrenched bureaucracy, poor transparency, and decades-old commitments that have never been re-examined. Those problems run through programs around the world.

If you want answers, you need to broaden the lens. You have to be willing to put aside the movie script and confront reality. You have to hold yourself to a simple rule: Ask questions because you want the truth, not because you want a target.

That is the only way this country ever gets clarity on foreign aid, influence, alliances, and our place in the world. Questioning is not just allowed. It is essential. But only if it is honest.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

The melting pot fails when we stop agreeing to melt

Spencer Platt / Staff | Getty Images

Texas now hosts Quran-first academies, Sharia-compliant housing schemes, and rapidly multiplying mosques — all part of a movement building a self-contained society apart from the country around it.

It is time to talk honestly about what is happening inside America’s rapidly growing Muslim communities. In city after city, large pockets of newcomers are choosing to build insulated enclaves rather than enter the broader American culture.

That trend is accelerating, and the longer we ignore it, the harder it becomes to address.

As Texas goes, so goes America. And as America goes, so goes the free world.

America has always welcomed people of every faith and people from every corner of the world, but the deal has never changed: You come here and you join the American family. You are free to honor your traditions, keep your faith, but you must embrace the Constitution as the supreme law of the land. You melt into the shared culture that allows all of us to live side by side.

Across the country, this bargain is being rejected by Islamist communities that insist on building a parallel society with its own rules, its own boundaries, and its own vision for how life should be lived.

Texas illustrates the trend. The state now has roughly 330 mosques. At least 48 of them were built in just the last 24 months. The Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex alone has around 200 Islamic centers. Houston has another hundred or so. Many of these communities have no interest in blending into American life.

This is not the same as past waves of immigration. Irish, Italian, Korean, Mexican, and every other group arrived with pride in their heritage. Still, they also raised American flags and wanted their children to be part of the country’s future. They became doctors, small-business owners, teachers, and soldiers. They wanted to be Americans.

What we are watching now is not the melting pot. It is isolation by design.

Parallel societies do not end well

More than 300 fundamentalist Islamic schools now operate full-time across the country. Many use Quran-first curricula that require students to spend hours memorizing religious texts before they ever reach math or science. In Dallas, Brighter Horizons Academy enrolls more than 1,700 students and draws federal support while operating on a social model that keeps children culturally isolated.

Then there is the Epic City project in Collin and Hunt counties — 402 acres originally designated only for Muslim buyers, with Sharia-compliant financing and a mega-mosque at the center. After public outcry and state investigations, the developers renamed it “The Meadows,” but a new sign does not erase the original intent. It is not a neighborhood. It is a parallel society.

Americans should not hesitate to say that parallel societies are dangerous. Europe tried this experiment, and the results could not be clearer. In Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, entire neighborhoods now operate under their own cultural rules, some openly hostile to Western norms. When citizens speak up, they are branded bigots for asserting a basic right: the ability to live safely in their own communities.

A crisis of confidence

While this separation widens, another crisis is unfolding at home. A recent Gallup survey shows that about 40% of American women ages 18 to 39 would leave the country permanently if given the chance. Nearly half of a rising generation — daughters, sisters, soon-to-be mothers — no longer believe this nation is worth building a future in.

And who shapes the worldview of young boys? Their mothers. If a mother no longer believes America is home, why would her child grow up ready to defend it?

As Texas goes, so goes America. And as America goes, so goes the free world. If we lose confidence in our own national identity at the same time that we allow separatist enclaves to spread unchecked, the outcome is predictable. Europe is already showing us what comes next: cultural fracture, political radicalization, and the slow death of national unity.

Brandon Bell / Staff | Getty Images

Stand up and tell the truth

America welcomes Muslims. America defends their right to worship freely. A Muslim who loves the Constitution, respects the rule of law, and wants to raise a family in peace is more than welcome in America.

But an Islamist movement that rejects assimilation, builds enclaves governed by its own religious framework, and treats American law as optional is not simply another participant in our melting pot. It is a direct challenge to it. If we refuse to call this problem out out of fear of being called names, we will bear the consequences.

Europe is already feeling those consequences — rising conflict and a political class too paralyzed to admit the obvious. When people feel their culture, safety, and freedoms slipping away, they will follow anyone who promises to defend them. History has shown that over and over again.

Stand up. Speak plainly. Be unafraid. You can practice any faith in this country, but the supremacy of the Constitution and the Judeo-Christian moral framework that shaped it is non-negotiable. It is what guarantees your freedom in the first place.

If you come here and honor that foundation, welcome. If you come here to undermine it, you do not belong here.

Wake up to what is unfolding before the consequences arrive. Because when a nation refuses to say what is true, the truth eventually forces its way in — and by then, it is always too late.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.