A READER WRITES:
My 100% American, dyed red white & blue patriot supervisor, who happens to be Syrian-born&raised, recently flew to Syria for visit. You would think this might be risky, particularly with all the flack about "profiling", "flying while Arab" and all that, but this guy is pretty hard-headed and he would not let minor details keep him from leading his life as he wishes (his motto: "I can't sleep well at night if I haven't taken a risk during the day"). In fact, I'll bet (I'll ask him on Monday) he'd be the first to say middle eastern visit/visitors bear closer scrutiny.
Anyway, after he came back from Syria, with Assad Junior blathering about civilian casualties in afghanistan, I asked him what the Syrians were thinking about us. Now read this closely: He said, "Everyone asked me why we hadn't used nuclear weapons yet."
There is no substitute for victory, swift and ferocious. If we do NOT send in ground troops to Afghanistan, we will find that public opinion in the Middle East will move even moreso to support the terrorists. If, to the contrary, we go in, kick a** and take names, we can then ask "Who's Next?" with impunity.
As a corrollary, if we DO find a weight of evidence implicating the Iraqis, we must go to war with them, and it must be a war for the "unconditional surrender" of Iraq. We must then use nuclear weapons. What we call "tactical" nukes are still truly awesome weapons. If the sniveling appeasers in the State Dept want to 'send a message' to the Arab world, you can be certain that dropping nukes on Saddam's palaces would send two unmistakable messages: 1)if you provoke us, we will kill you and destroy all that you hold dear, and 2) we are willing to go to any lengths to get the job done.
A president could not have asked for a more enraged and supportive U.S. public. The number of opponents to U.S. action is gradually creeping up, no doubt as the media revert to their normal behavior. Ruthlessness is supported by the public, and the world is watching to see if ANYTHING is capable of stirring the soft Americans to fierce battle anymore.
Your post about Syria is well taken. Unless people like Assad say to themselves, whoa! when this is done, we will continue to be picked at by the world's scavengers.