The American Spectator

Reader Mail

(Page 2 of 14)

Suppose a British diplomat had dropped down in Washington in 1863 and went about ringing his hand about the terrible carnage of the Civil War -- all those brave men being killed and maimed.

The Brit says, "We must have peace. Everybody wants peace."

So he goes to Lincoln and says "Mr. Lincoln, do you want peace?"

Lincoln: "Certainly Mr. Brit. Just get Jefferson Davis to lay down his arms and we can have peace."

So the Brit goes to Richmond and sees Jefferson Davis and says, "Mr. Davis, do you want peace?"

Davis: "Certainly Mr. Brit. Just get Mr. Lincoln to let the Confederacy go and we can have peace."

So the war went on.

Is it so difficult to understand this about, for instance, the Palestinians? Yes, very likely most Palestinians DO want peace, but that doesn't count because they are under the thumb of their leadership. Very likely most Germans didn't want to invade Russia, but that didn't count because Hitler was in charge. And Hitler DID want to invade Russia.

So with the Palestinians. They have a warrior religion, they have a tactic -- suicide bombing -- and they want ALL of Palestine. Why is that so difficult for people to understand?

p>To offer peace to Arafat, if he were still alive, is in some sense to insult him. In the same way it would have been insulting to offer peace to Robert E. Lee. He didn't wasn't PEACE. He wanted VICTORY. As did Lincoln. br> -- Greg Richards /p>

Islamic terrorists are the products of a failed and humiliated civilization. When they look upon the achievements of the West in contrast to their centuries of their failure, they are filled with rage and envy.

Envy and the fear of envy are both part of human nature. The problem with our pampered liberals is that they have an inordinate fear of being envied. This causes them not only to side with terrorists, but also to hate their own country, race, and sex as a way of deflecting the envy of others away from them personally.

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