Dutch Prime Minister compares ISIS fight to WWII

Fighting against the advance of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria is akin to battling back the Germans during the second World War, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte told reporters Friday. “We must defend our core values tooth and nail if necessary,” he said after a meeting with the cabinet. “That was true then, and it is true now.” “The fight for the preservation of our values and of our society, where men and women, gay and straight, no matter what faith you have, everyone is equal before the law and everyone can make a contribution to the country, but can never be so violent, and the most horrible forms of violence that we can fight.” On Thursday, Prime Minister Rutte visited Putten, Gelderland, the scene of a Nazi raid 70 years ago. Seeking revenge for a Dutch resistance attack on a car carrying two German officers and two German corporals, the Nazis invaded the village capturing 659 Dutch men. The men, nearly the entire male population of the small town, were then sent to concentration camps where most of them died. Only 48 returned after the war. “The fight is against organisations and people who make use of the most horrible atrocities to achieve their goals,” Prime Minister Rutte said.