[white trash redneck]

We'll know that we're serious about fighting Islamic fascism when W fires Powell, Mineta, and the other 5th columnists in his administration.

[Taliesan]

Wow! Steyn and Helprin on Bush's case in one day.

[Jim Noble]

Every word is true.

The war metaphor only works if you're serious. If you're not, it's exceedingly dangerous.

[jjm2111]

I agree with this article 100%

If we do not decimate radical Islam we WILL suffer more attacks of this magnitude.

[SEGUET]

"He did not ask America to sacrifice or fight, but to shop."

Now that is the finest analysis of GW's leadership I have read anywhere -

I truly expect that we will get 75% of the world's approval for our little entre' into IRAQ -

BUT - we will not get 5% of the world's financial or military support in doing so -

"Riceroni" - says don't worry about putting it back after the war - rebuilding an infrastructure, rule of law, civilian casualties, cleaning up the Depleted Uranium munitions, putting out the oil well fires, decontaminating areas exposed to sirin, mustard gases and bioological weapons - that is no big thing.

We will get stuck with that task and that bill on top of trying to bring Afganistan into the 21st century..


Take it to the bank - all the approval but none of the support. This $1 Trillion e-ticket is coming right out of our pocket.

[Cicero]

It's still too early to say whether this is basically true.

Some of the details are already proven false. As it happens, the Saudis and other ARE providing us with staging support.

Also, keep in mind that clinton seriously depleted our cruise missile supplies, aircraft spare parts, and probably other items necessary for a war on Iraq. We don't KNOW this, but there may have been reasons for the lengthy delay.

Finally, I agree with Helprin that we need to take on Syria, Iran, and above all Saudi Arabia, but we need to do it on our own schedule. It's too soon to say whether Bush understands that, but it's also too soon to write him off.

The one area where we have notably failed is domestic security. Immigration is as big a problem as ever; airport security is a laugh; and the CIA and FBI are still run by corrupt clintonoid incompetents. But let's see what happens next before we fault Bush for moving too slow on the military front.

I'm a fan of Mark Helprin's. But even the good guys can get it wrong sometimes.

[Linda Liberty]

Helprin has the strong view that we should take war with terrorism seriously enough to refocus our spending priorities in a major way. This is a reasonable view, although I think people could reasonably differ-- arguing instead that we should try to maintain a strong economy and deal with terrorism effectively but economically.

However, even by this weaker standard Bush has been a total failure. His administrations idea of airport security: bothering the passengers without doing much useful to increase security, preventing pilots from carrying guns, refusing to do any profiling, federalizing airport security etc. is a total disaster. It is nothing but big government bureaucracy run amok in the most politically correct manner possible. It isn't the slightest exaggeration to say that a Gore administration would likely have done a better job and at any rate could not have done worse.

[rogue yam]

Can we really say that Bush has failed? When he took office we were in deep trouble, worse than almost anyone knew. He had little mandate to make big changes in the security situation and the Democrats and media were all over him.

Since then Afghanistan has been greatly improved and we're still working on it. Also Pakistan, Yemen, and others. This fall Iraq gets the treatment. How fast should Bush be going on all this?

I figure that if he drains one Islamist snake-pit every year for Ramadan, then by the time he's finished his second term we'll be living in a very different world.

Steady on, lads.