We were warned in the 18th century...

"Thomas Jefferson, then U.S. ambassador to France, and John Adams, then ambassador to Britain, visited the resident ambassador from Tripoli (modern-day Libya) in London to negotiate a treaty to protect American ships from Barbary pirates. Why, asked Adams and Jefferson, is your government so hostile to the fledgling United States of America? After all, we have no quarrel with you, nor you with us.

The Tripolitan ambassador told them -- as reported to the Continental Congress -- "that it was founded on the Laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as Prisoners, and that every Musselman [Muslim] who should be slain in battle was sure to go to Paradise." "

Read Islamofascism -- An Enemy Like No Other by Larry Elder

It's Not Just About Land

"For about the last half-century, globalization has passed most of the recalcitrant Middle East by -- economically, socially and politically. The result is that there are now few inventions and little science emanating from the Islamic world -- but a great deal of poverty, tyranny and violence. And rather than make the necessary structural changes that might end cultural impediments to progress and modernity -- such as tribalism, patriarchy, gender apartheid, polygamy, autocracy, statism and fundamentalism -- too many Middle Easterners have preferred to embrace the reactionary past and the cult of victimization.

At one time or another, they have welcomed all the bankrupt ideologies that traditionally blame others for prior self-induced failure: fascism, communism, Baathism, Pan-Arabism and, most recently, Islamic fundamentalism.

When there is high unemployment, corruption, zero economic growth, endemic illiteracy and no freedom, mullahs, dictators and jihadists of the Middle East always seem to fault the ancient colonial power -- Britain, France or Italy (though rarely Islamic Turkey) -- that supposedly set them back over a century ago. Or they try blaming the omnipotent United States whose oilmen developed the riches of the Gulf and whose military has saved Muslims from Kosovo to Kuwait."

Read It's Not Just About Land By Victor Davis Hanson

The Qana “massacre”.

...it is increasingly clear that the Qana “massacre” was a stage-managed Hizballah production, designed precisely to enflame international sentiment against Israel and compel the Israelis to accept a ceasefire that would enable the jihad terrorist group to gain some time to recover from the Israeli attacks. Some of the principal evidence for this:

Another Disgrace.

"A U.S. soldier testified Wednesday that four of his colleagues accused of murdering three Iraqis during a raid threatened to kill him if he told anyone about the shooting deaths." Story

You take a bunch of young guys, give them guns and put them in a 24-hour-a-day pressure cooker where people in civilian clothing are trying to kill them and this stuff will happen. It is disgraceful and reflects badly upon the decent, disciplined troops of our armed forces. If these guys are guilty, they have to pay big time! - Alan

The Iranian Strategy.

"Everyone knows that Iran is using Hezbollah's war in Lebanon to distract attention from its nuclear weapons program...

The Iranian strategy to buy time is utterly transparent and not especially clever. It is simple to defeat: declare that Hezbollah's aggression against Israel is proof of Iran's evil intentions and that we don't require any further diplomatic justification to bomb Iran's nuclear sites and bring down its regime.

Instead, Western leaders fell for the Iranian strategy, and the Iranians have pretty much gotten what they wanted."

Read Iran's Strategy Is Crudely Obvious--So Why Can't We Fight It? By Robert Tracinski

Radical Islam Creates Nothing of Value.

"In order to feel superior, one must be able to look down on others. It is difficult for these fanatics who have never invented, discovered or created anything but chaos and bloodshed to look up from the bottom of their pile of rubble to see that the world has long ago passed them by.

Their region of the world has taken in huge amounts of money from petroleum sales to the developed world. Has that money been used to upgrade people from their squalid lives? Have great universities been constructed, cures for diseases discovered, products invented to benefit all humankind, music composed and art created that the world envies and admires? They have not, so they blame their miserable existence on the Jews and the West who have done such things and more.

Unable to cope with their failings and to justify their guilt, they seek to bring others down to their level. They will not be stopped by diplomatic appeals, or reason. They have taken up the sword and they must be made to die by the sword in sufficient numbers that even they will see the futility of their ways and be forced to engage in less warlike pursuits. "

- Cal Thomas

Carter, The Foolish Former President

"Wouldn't it be nice if President Bush asked (Former President)Carter to go to Haifa and be his eyes and ears for the next two years? Get set up in a nice place somewhere in the northern part of Israel, and let him go shopping in a mall, not knowing where or when someone will scream Allah is great in Arabic and detonate a vest bomb, prepare his own bomb shelter and stay down there for a few days at a time?

I'd like him to live in a country where the surrounding world on all of your borders wants you dead or thrown into the sea, and then have to listen to talk from international fatheads half a world away openly promote the idea of giving away land to bring these same people that want you dead even closer to where you live. Then, after you've lived that experience, then tell me about your grand peace plans, and who's attacking who, Mr. Carter. "

Hugh Hewitt - RadioBlogger.com

We are again asleep.

"The scary thing about our current jam is that 9/11 was supposed to have been the wakeup call, but we are again asleep. For this I blame our leaders — both the administration and the Dems. The administration is constitutionally unable to explain itself, and the Dems have no qualms about losing all present battles so long as they can elect their candidates and bring down this president...

Any logical person has to conclude that you cannot win this war without defeating "Syran" (Syria and Iran). But not a single voice comes from the White House to explain this, let alone to craft a strategy to accomplish it."

Read The Thirties All Over Again? Nobody knows how this will proceed. By Michael Ledeen

Imagine A Proportional Response in WW2.

"If expanded terrorism, unprovoked attacks and threats to dominate the Middle East and the world are the consequences of perceived weakness, what might the benefits be for exhibiting strength? Peace through strength was more than a slogan during the Reagan years.

Instead of talk about "appropriate" responses to unprovoked attacks, "proportional" military action and worrying about our "image," what might be the result of sustained, unremitting and effective military might that neutralizes Hezbollah and teaches a lesson to those who would kill us?

Imagine if we had been concerned about a proportional response at the beginning of World War II. Instead, America nuked Japan and firebombed Germany. We weren't after a "sustainable cease-fire," nor did we speak in diplomatic niceties or worry about "civilian casualties." Our goal was the enemy's unconditional and complete surrender. There haven't been any dictators in Germany or Japan since.

There will be no diplomatic solution to this war. President Bush has asserted that democracy burns in every human heart. I want to believe that, but am growing skeptical."

Read The West's language problem by Cal Thomas

Scorched Earth

"What if the RAF had been in good enough shape to inflict "terror" on Berlin in the fall of 1939? What if the United States had determined to strike the Imperial Japanese Navy first? What if the League of Nations had decided to stand by the Spanish Republic and Abyssinia, and had pounded Franco's and Mussolini's armies before they could get off the mark?

Those who oppose violence on principle are called pacifists. Those who oppose it until its use is too little and too late, or too much and too late, should be called casuists. "

Read Scorched Earth: Was the destruction of German cities justified?
by Christopher Hitchens

We Need More Dead Jews!

This weekend Juan Williams joined the chorus of short-sighted cowards calling for an end to Israel's attacks in Lebanon. He asserts that 500 dead in Lebanon and only 51 dead in Israel is just too imbalanced. I assume the left would show some backbone and support Israel's self-defense if Hezbollah could somehow kill more Israelis to square things up a bit!

Hezbollah deliberately positions itself near UN outposts and civilian areas to promote the accidental killing of non-combatants for this very reason. It has been reported that Hezbollah militiamen had threatened to kill any civilians trying to flee certain areas after the Israelis had warned them to do so. These guys use civilians as shields and then cry foul when women, children and the elderly die. They know how to play Williams and his type like a fiddle. They know when some "innocents" die by an Israeli missile, these wimps will wilt and put pressure on Israel to halt the attacks.

If Israel backs off, what do they get? What happens when you get a cease-fire with these dirt-bags? They re-supply, dig in, build fortifications and go right back to plotting the destruction of Israel and America. Israel is now doing what Europe and the US don't have the guts to do, stand up to Iran and Syria. Should we fight them now while we can win, or pussy-foot around with them till they have nukes? I guess we need to debate that one in Congress.

If Hezbollah's weapons, which are aimed exclusively at civilians, were more accurate maybe we'd see those "dead Jew" numbers up to 500 or more. We need to try to keep the casualties balanced, so Juan can sleep at night and the obsessively egalitarian American left-wing can allow itself to support standing up to people who have announced their intentions to destroy us all.

Read Cry to Those Using Babies as Shields
by Naomi Ragen