The rise of ISIS and its genocidal rampage against Christians (and most anything else) in its wake across much of the Middle East underlines the undeniable failure of President Obama’s foreign policy.

ISIS – the Islamic State – is gaining ground.  It continues to gain sadistic followers to its jihadist army.  It still rakes in money from stolen antiquities, oil, and other criminal endeavors.

ISIS is raping Christian women missionaries.  It is beheading and crucifying Christians – including children – at will throughout large swaths of Iraq, Syria, and bleeding over into Libya and even Afghanistan.

Despite President Obama’s disparate attempts at rhetoric, ISIS has not been degraded, and it certainly hasn’t been destroyed.  In fact, President Obama’s pinprick air strikes have done little to even stall ISIS’s bloody rampage.

Now, President Obama has taken a back seat to Vladimir Putin’s aggression in Syria.  Yet, Russian air strikes are aimed not at ISIS but in fact at U.S. trained Syrian rebels.  And the U.S. is even pulling our only aircraft carrier from the Gulf region.  Putin has all but won the stair down with President Obama over Syria.  Then who is left to fight ISIS?

Amidst the chaos, ISIS alone stands to gain.

So how did we get here?  There was no ISIS when President Obama took office.  Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) – the precursor to ISIS – was on the run, decimated by U.S. and Iraqi forces.  Yet, in a predetermined political ploy (not guided by military strategy), President Obama snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

The predetermined and announced drawdown in U.S. troops left the region ripe for a terrorist resurgence.

Now all that our troops fought and bled for has been nearly lost.  And worst of all Christians in the region are reaping the deadly consequences.

The valor of our brave men and women in uniform has been squandered.

President Obama took office preaching a utopian message of peace through weakness.  The result is the daily rape, beheading, crucifixion, kidnapping, sexual enslavement, and just pure evil perpetrated by ISIS.

Too much has been sacrificed to allow it to fall into the hands of the most ruthless and genocidal monsters we have ever seen in our lifetime.  How many Christians, Yazidis, and even Muslim minorities must be slaughtered until the world puts an end to the genocide?

As these atrocities unfold, the U.S. should be leading the charge to defend the defenseless, not leaving the hard-fought victories of our soldiers behind.  It is a betrayal of their sacrifice.

It is time for all of us as Americans to stand up and be counted – to voice our outrage over the slaughter of thousands of Christians, the rape of missionaries, and the crucifixion of children at the hands of genocidal jihadists.  We must protect the defenseless and honor the valor of all those who have sacrificed to preserve the basic freedoms all humanity should enjoy from the dominance of evil.

Matthew Clark is Senior Counsel for Digital Advocacy with the ACLJ. Follow Matthew Clark: @_MatthewClark.