[aculeus]

Chilling ... but accurate.

[L,TOWM]

I am proud that thugs like Khaddafi, murderers like Saddam Hussein, inquisitionists like the mullahs in Iran, criminals in Syria, medieval sheiks in the Gulf, and millions of others who do not vote, do not speak freely, oppress women, and are not tolerant of religious, gender, or ethnic diversity don't like me for being an American. I would find it repugnant if they did.

Priceless.

[Pistias]

All the while, no American statesman has the guts to tell the Arab leadership that statism, tribalism, fundamentalism, gender apartheid, and autocracy — not America, not Israel — make their people poor, angry, and dangerous

So Arabs want to destroy us because they are have-nots and we are haves?

[EternalHope]

The truth is that there is a great storm on the horizon,...

History teaches us that certain nations, certain peoples, and certain religions at peculiar periods in their history take a momentary, but deadly leave of their senses...

...And when they do, they cannot be bribed, apologized to, or sweet-talked — only defeated.

In that context, we see much of a whipped-up Arab world entering this similar period of dangerous unreality. The problem is them and their unelected and unfree regimes, not us — just as it was Hitler, not us; Tojo, not us; Mussolini, not us; and Stalin, not us — just as it always is when unelected maniacs take control and hijack an entire country and culture. We can either step up and stop Islamic fundamentalism, Arab terrorists, and Middle Eastern dictators or we can step back and watch it all continue to grow. If 9/11 was the beginning of a war, then we should remember that wars usually end when one, not both sides, win.

We have a chance to knock off the worst bad guys, one by one. If we fail, a large number of countries will unite against us. The foe hopes the list of enemies will include all of Islam.

It is already raining. If we are lucky, weapons of mass destruction will not be used against us and we will only get damp.

If the Arabs, (or worse, all of Islam) unite, weapons of mass destruction will be used against us. A very hard rain will then fall.

As this excellent article says, such a war will only end when one side or the other has been defeated.

[Ancesthntr]

I thought 9/11 was our wake up call, but we're still sleeping. I do think that, once finally aroused, we will kick tail. I hope.

I, too, thought that we would have awakened as we did after Pearl Harbor. For all of the comparisons with that event evoked by the presstitutes and publicity-seeking politicos regarding 9/11, we remain asleep. I thought (naively so, as it turns out) that FINALLY the American people had finally realized what kind of a place the world was, and that we'd finally clean out the SOBs that make this world miserable. So, where was the declaration of war? Where was/is the mobilization of resources to fight the billion (or 2 or 3) that hate us for being free and prosperous? We are STILL ASLEEP - what will it take to reawaken the sleeping giant and to fill him with a terrible resolve, the atomization of several cities?

Rather than preparing for what our enemies are preparing for us, we look to gestures of appeasement. Does not the Islamic world appreciate the presence of General Zinni? Do we not give billions to Arab countries? Did we not save Kuwait and Muslims throughout the globe? Who in the Arab world could really think that the murderous Taliban were preferable to the present more enlightened government in Afghanistan? And although Middle Eastern males blew up our planes, people, and monuments, have we not had a national discussion about the evils of profiling those from the Middle East in our airports and stations? Don't Muslims tell their kindred back home how much freer they are in America than in Iraq or Syria?

Don't get me wrong - Bush has done a decent job of smashing the Taliban and putting Al-Queda back into the caves, but this isn't enough. Neither (esp. the latter) would present any kind of real threat to civilization without the support of nations like Iraq, Iran, China, Syria, Libya, not to mention Saudi Arabia (well, OK, I will mention them),our supposed ally. However, he has failed like his father did to really tell us why we have to go to war, and to be successful like in WW2, or else we will cease to exist. Churchill he ain't, but at least he could try a bit harder. He is much like Reagan in many ways, but the Gipper was head and shoulders above him in explaining why we had to struggle against the Evil Empire.

President Bush: the Axis of Evil is out there, but it is far greater in scope and resources than the 3 thuggocracies you mentioned. You must know this, but you'll never be truly successful in the War on Terrorism until you truly explain our situation to the mass of the American public that doesn't know better (or doesn't want to know better). This is a war for our survival - we must begin to act like it, soon, or we will suffer grievous losses in the future and possibly lose. We must take the initiative and destroy the various terrorist regimes ASAP, before they have an opportunity to acquire and develop effective WMD arsenals. We'll need very large and well-equipped armed forces to accomplish this, along with near limitless ammunition. Currently we have neither. Tell the voters and taxpayers the dimensions of the problem, and we'll support nearly any measure necessary to prevail.

[js1138]

...I am proud that thugs like Khaddafi, murderers like Saddam Hussein, inquisitionists like the mullahs in Iran, criminals in Syria, medieval sheiks in the Gulf, and millions of others who do not vote, do not speak freely, oppress women, and are not tolerant of religious, gender, or ethnic diversity don't like me for being an American. I would find it repugnant if they did.

Big Bump.

[prognostigaator]

The 30's were different in that Americans were Americans.

And those that were not citizens desired to be so. And became assimillated in this culture.
Today, one wonders where and why many dont.

There some 'Americans' and many aliens whose allegience lies with another nation, not this one...What are their motives? Why don't they go back? They know who they are.

[Gritty]

Excellent article!

[wcbtinman]

This is no more than our elected leadership shirking their responsibility under the Constitution, until it's too late, and they are forced to put the cream of our young people into harms way. Many of today's problems could have been diminished had our procrastinating leadership just had the courage to stand up for principles instead of politics.

We reap what we sow.

[Humidston]

Methinks Bush is well aware of this reality. He has weapons and planes and ships to build before it's too late.

I received an email (can't verify the truth of it) where Bush boldly asked a Christian who was greeting him, "Please pray for a protective shield over our country!"

Let's all do that.

[madison46]

Some bump lists.

Read and heed. Life and the threats are more complicated a la the 1930's

[Zviadist]

This is the stupidest thing I have read in a long time. And that is saying a good deal. The warhawks are so self-conscious about the weakness of their case in favor of war with the world -- "the war on a noun" -- that they are desperate to tie it to something concrete, like WWII. Hence the endless articles invoking Hitler and Czechoslovakia and Chamberlain. It is pathetic, really.

[Politically Correct]

A WWIII Bump

[Bigg Red]

So we should stop apologizing, prepare for the worst, hope for the best, and accept this animosity....

So true. We need to shut them up in short order!

[Constitution Day]

History teaches us that certain nations, certain peoples, and certain religions at peculiar periods in their history take a momentary, but deadly leave of their senses —
Napoleon's France for most of a decade, the southern states in 1861, Japan in 1931, Germany in 1939, and Russia after World War II.
And when they do, they cannot be bribed, apologized to, or sweet-talked — only defeated.

(emphasis added is mine)

I've heard the Confederacy compared to the Nazis, but now we're in some really distinguished company!
The C.S.A. had just so very much in common with four imperialistic regimes bent on world domination, didn't they?

< /sarcasm>

[eno_]

In that context, we see much of a whipped-up Arab world entering this similar period of dangerous unreality.

The proof of this is that educated Moslems are just as rabid as the illiterate ones. We must put an end to Islam or it will put and end to us.

[WaterDragon]

Victor Davis Hanson makes more sense with this article than anything I have heard or read since Sept 11. And the reason it makes sense is simply because every word is true.

[DallasDeb]

I think the Muslims would be much more hideous in their battles and pogroms than the Hitler regime. This time it won't be just the Jews who experience the holocaust. It will be Christians, as well.

[Urbane_Guerilla]

the sad, terrible reality is that it will take another 9-11 to wake up most Americans to the true nature of the Islamic war against us ... even well-intentioned and intelligent Americans are strangely oblivious to the threat we face ... before this is over, the solidarity of ordinary Americans will need to be galvanized by a new horror, which the moslem barbarians will surely inflict

[tet68]

After 30 years of listening to nauseating chanting from Teheran to Islamabad to Nablus, hearing the childish rants about "The Mother of All Battles" and "The Great Satan," and witnessing presidents from Carter to Bush burned in effigy, the ritual torching of the American flag, the misspelled banners of hatred, the thousands of paint-by-the-numbers posters of psychopaths from Khomeini to bin Laden, televised threats that sound as hideous as they are empty, Nazi-inspired anti-Semitism, embassy takeovers, oil-boycotts, hijacked planes, cars, and ships, lectures from unelected obese sheiks with long names and gold chains, peacekeepers incinerated in their sleep, murders at the Olympics, bodies dumped on the tarmac of airports, shredded diplomats, madmen in sunglasses in Iraq, Syria, and Libya, demented mullahs and whip-bearing imams in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Iran, continual televised murders of Americans abroad, our towers toppled, our citizens butchered, our planes blown up, hooded Klansmen in Hamas and Hezbollah, killers of al-this and Islamic-that, suicide bombers, shrill turbaned nuts spouting hatred on C-SPAN broadcasts, one day the salvation of Kuwait, the next sanctions against the swallower of Kuwait, the third day fury against the sanctions against the swallower of Kuwait, the fourth day some grievance from 1953, the fifth another from A.D. 752; and all the time sanctimonious fingerpointing from Middle Eastern academics and journalists who are as bold abroad in insulting us as they are timid and obsequious under dictators at home in keeping silent, I've about had it.

I believe that about covers it.

Let's Roll.

[habs4ever]

Hanson has been the best writer anywhere since 9/11, and this again shows us why.