The American Spectator

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Creatures of Habit

7.18.06 @ 12:01AM

TRIAL RUNS
Re: Jed Babbin's Endgame Conservatives, Chapter Two:

Mr. Babbin is correct with regard to the neo-Wilsonian mindset of the present administration. Historically, the practice of limited response to the type of warfare that has been the norm for the last thirty-five years has always brought the practitioner to the point at which we are now. Being an optimist, I had hoped that the actions of the Bush administration would have done more to stifle terrorist warfare by intimidating the sponsor states. Being a student of history, I was afraid that it wouldn't.

What has to be remembered is that it had to be tried. Not being clairvoyant, we can never know exactly what the future holds or how people (and nations) will react or respond. Well, we tried. The states that we were trying to impress continue with their anti-social activities. They continue to threaten the rest of the world and have embarked upon a course of action that directly threatens this nation. Now is the time to realistically assess the threats and to respond accordingly. Unfortunately, it is time for the U.S. to put on its game face and mobilize for an extended war in the Middle East and elsewhere.

Hamas is a governing body of a territory and Hezbollah is part of the Lebanese government and acts as a controlling body of a territory. By attacking Israeli territory and citizens, they are engaged in acts of war under international law. By supporting them with men and materiel, Syria and Iran have allied themselves with a faction of warring nations and have become de facto participants in this war and enemies of Israel. Under treaty provisions with Israel, the U.S. is bound to support and assist Israel. This means that sooner or later, we will be embroiled in this mess, whether we like it or not. It has become only a matter of time until our fears become a reality.

To allow the forces arrayed against Israel, and us, to go unchecked is not an option anymore. Nor would it be prudent to force a return to the status quo of a month ago. The situation is extremely fluid at the moment and even the next few hours are uncertain. Therefore, it would be prudent to be prepared to take whatever action is necessary to ensure that both Israel and the U.S. survive the next few months or years. Unfortunately, this will necessitate the use of military force by the U.S., sooner or later. Hopefully, we will have allies in this fight, but we can not depend upon that. Event will unfold quickly in the near future and we must be prepared to seize the initiative. If we do not, the conflagration in the Middle East will spread across the globe.
-- Michael Tobias
Ft. Lauderdale, Florida

Mr. Babbin's premise, I thought, had been part and parcel of the "agreement" of our government with its citizens entered into after Vietnam. Politicians learned (if they can learn anything) that fighting wars with boundaries -- Korea and Vietnam -- was a doomed to failure enterprise in which the lives of our sons (and now daughters) were wastefully expended. Ronald Reagan followed this rule and George the first followed it as well.

The agreement was violated by the son of Arkansas who has lied his way through life thus far and so his failure to stick to agreements should come as no surprise. William Jefferson Clinton sent our finest soldiers to a backwater African nation, drowning in internecine tribal warfare, to slow down the pace of Africans murdering Africans. As this is as much a way of life in Africa as is speaking, we had little hope of accomplishing anything meaningful. In fact Mr. Clinton did accomplish a great deal. He showed the world that dead American soldiers could be dragged naked through the blood soaked streets of a loathsome African city by a murderous people with impunity.

On September 11, a very liberal democrat friend of mine, just momentarily reconnected with reality, and angrily said: "We ought to nuke those stone-age, barbarian Arabs."

Let us now restate the "agreement" clearly enough that politicians can understand it. "America will not expend the lives of its children unless, in the war to be prosecuted, we are willing, if necessary to win, to use nuclear weapons." That will provide democrats with every opportunity to surrender our freedoms they require and the Republicans with a useful tool in international relations...

Walk softly and carry a big stick, yes?
-- Jay W. Molyneaux
Wellington, Florida

I am in complete agreement with you on being an endgame conservative. However, I bring up once again your curious insistence on calling radical Islam "an ideology not a religion." I wrote to you a few months ago about this and perhaps I missed it, but I have not seen a fuller explanation.

Whence cometh this distinction between ideology and religion? Islam is a totalitarian religion. It believes in a supreme being, Allah, and believes that Mohammed is the "seal of the prophets". It has creed, code, and cult as all religions do. It is in addition a religion that has nothing short of world-wide political hegemony as its primary goal, and this goal has been there since its founding. Is your distinction based on a notion that somehow religion, to be religion, has to have no political ambitions? But it is only Christianity that has ever figured that out and it took us a long time (and still hasn't completely sunk in, as witness Liberation Theology). Paganism always conflates religion and the state, although not all pagan religions had world-wide designs. Just take Ancient Egypt for example. Islam is a strange thing: a pagan monotheism.

So I am still not clear on your distinction.
-- Lucy Tucker

Jed Babbin has my vote for Secretary of State. He understands to the reality of the world we live in. The war against Islamic terrorism must be fought to win, not to gain favor in the fickle and envious international community. .

As for Miss Rice, I'm afraid she's only marginally better than her predecessors, Colin Powell and Madeleine Halfbright, neither of whom were ready for primetime on the world stage.
-- Peter Skurkiss
Stow, Ohio

Letter to the Editor

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