[nopardons]

Obviously, you can neither write clear and coherent English and don't know what a " POTEMPKIN VILLAGE " is. You can't compare his ideas and logic to a false fronted, nonexistant village.

Pipes is an expert on Islam/Islamonazi fantasists fanatics/and the Middle East. No one is claiming that he is a " Conservative " or a " Liberal "; his politics are not the point.Unlike YOU, he knows what he's talking about. It should; however, give you great pause, that CAIR, Edward Said, etc. hate this man and gripe about what he says & writes.

Your preoccupation with " worry over what future presidents will do ( Dem implied " is factuous at best. Clinton, long ago, pulled what can easily be called any number of things; from " WAG THE DOG ", to yes a " premptive strike " ! He never followed through, though and THAT is precisely WHY we have been viewed , by many others, as a " PAPER TIGER ", decayed, toothless, and easy prey. From Carter and the hostages, to Reagan and the Lebbanon strikes against the Marines , to Clinton and the African embasies, the USS Cole,Somalia, first WTC bombings, our retaliatory actions have been zip, nada, turn tail and run.

" Christian culture " ? Might I remind you of the CRUSADES ?

That you neither know, nor care enough to educate yourself about the ARAB STREET and what the French/German/Belgium group is saying, is proof that you shouldn't even attempt to post your " thoughts " on FR. YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING, YET, IMAGINE THAT YOUR VIEWS, BASED ON NOTHING, MATTER. Of course, you're wrong !

Your comments are OFFENSIVE to anyone who is even somewhat intelligent.

[LibTeeth]

I think we need to distiguish here between a discussion of pragmatic tactics versus the philosophy that may be motivating them. I won't dispute the short term benefits of invading Iraq. When those benefits arise from a collectivist, fraudulent philosphy, obvious Hegelian dialectic thinking, one might want to look a little deeper. This is no different than liberals arguing the benefits of the welfare state, and ignoring the unseen costs, most of which are cultural dissintegration, not just monetary.

I've heard this "we must become more like them to beat them" line before. In the 80s we were faced with the economic competition from the Japanese, and all the rave among the policy wonks and pundits(my term for experts in Pipes position)was that we "had to become more like them to beat them". It was total BS. For one thing, their success was based partly on becoming more like what we were, using objective management tools to guide operational conduct. For another, they were a high-trust monoculture, unencumbered by our multi-cultural BS, as well as divisive managment-labor distinctions. But ultimately, the Japanese economic ability and threat was a fraud based upon unsound banking practices, government subsidies, and dumping.

Similarly, the entire Islamic world view is a fraud, as is their threat to us. They have no productive capacity to wage real war. Their ability to wage asymetric war is also poor, and only scares pant wetting liberals and Hollywood commentators. For this we should become more like them? Their major strength is access to our oil market, and we control that. We can fight any barbarians without becoming more like them. One doesn't fight immorality with immorality. If Pipes has to justify our behavior with illogical dialectic sophistry, there is something fundamentally wrong there.

I think we've kicked this stiff mare to death, but feel free to continue with the ad hominem attacks, my skin is thicker than my skull ;-)