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I'm afraid you're right about the 800 lb. gorilla. The whole religion is a curse to this planet. I don't think we should, however, let the Taliban take over again. It's still a good place to kill the enemy Islamicist bastards. There will be war for years and years it seems. Afganistan is pretty much intractable place to tame, but I think Iraq is considerably more hopeful.

Could someone please explain who this Micheal Yon is and why he is apparently so well respected here?

This will be the best news of the month, at least. Can you imagine a prosperous Afghanistan in a couple decades? Elections, more freedom for women,coming into the 20th century,etc. A modern Islamic society may not be an oxymoron if that happens but to me this is nothing short of fantastic.

I don't think they understand the determination of George Bush. There will be no exit stragegy per se, only a victory strategy: when the time is RIGHT and not one day sooner. They cannot impose their will on this strong Commander-in-Chief. The idea of ANY POSITIVEness out of Iraq does not exist in their world. My only question would be: are they worthy of respect........seriously?

What if it came down to McCain against some Dumbocrat in 2008? Should we hold our nose and vote for him or just stay home. Maybe it could depend on who is the VP candidate and who he would be running against.

Astute point! BUT at this time it is a unique situation AND recruiters are not banned anymore (8-0 SCOTUS ruling this week). That is unless Yale doesn't want anymore money from the govt. They will take the money over their (misguided) priciples because it is a lot of dough. I think that only the most radical of leftists would approve of this type of DVD.

That's a good idea Leo, except any body trying to sell or distrubute that would be in grave danger. The young impressionable minds would probably reject it out of hand anyway.

Even though I detest their attitude on Mr. Bush and the Iraq engagement it is kind of heartwarming to see that Germany is apparently a pretty strong ally of Israel. I'm afraid that the only solution to all this is: WAR. I can imagine NATO VS. IRAN. That's not an unimaginable scenario. Guess who is going to lose.

"Don't Hold Your Breath. They have a puppet in the WH that will take out their trash."
You must maan a strong defender who will go to bat for them, in the White House. You just want our attention and are probably an anti-semite troller. You're dismissed.

"....and that they're seriously counting on us not having the stomach to destroy them."
That's a serious tactical blunder on their part because they have only a hint of how ferocious America and friends can be to defend our freedom. One more Sept.11 or worse will spell doom for the Islamofacists. There is no way they can win but it won't be easy for us on the other hand. Wish I was young so I could join the Military...

I couldn't agree more and your words,to me, are extremely wise and basically the bottom line. I don't think the average Muslim has evolved nearly enough to grasp your words, unfortunately. Could you please tell me just what is (was) the "lesson of Salman Rusdie"? I know he wrote "Satanic Verses" and was ordered to be killed by some fatwah, I guess you would call it, way back in the late 1980's I think.

I'm getting to the point where I agree that the moderate Muslims are of no help. However there has been an occasional brave one who speaks out. Their silence, which is deafening at times, could be related to fear and\or tacit approval;who the hell knows which? Their whole entire religion needs a true REFORMATION. I have little or no faith that will happen. I do think Mr. Buchanan is correct that you should not insult their religion, the cartoons have had a negative effect in general.

How can you say that nuking Mecca would "stop it today"? That would only enrage one hundred percent of the Muslims in the world and make this a thousand years MORE war. You are way too radical. Thank God people like you don't call the shots.

Don't forget that the Muslim religion has been HIJACKED by ruthless radical fascist type killers. Should we broad brush the whole religion as Jihadis?.....not a smart move. I do believe that no religion is beyond criticism but should be done discretely and appropriately. In simple terms: hate and kill the truly bad guys and leave the rest alone.

"Self Censorship is surrender. I find a lot of the political cartoons they publish highly offensive. Shall I demand they NOT publish them to avoid offending me? Why do they pour gas on the nasty uncivil political debates in this country? What good do their nasty meanspirited political Cartoons do?"

Exactly my point on that last question. What good DO they do? It's like ragging on a teenager with low self esteem...Helpful?? Self censorship is surrender, huh? That's only true at certain times and certain conditions.Of course the MSM bows at the alter of PC but how does that translate into surrender? Retreat,perhaps, by the Political Lefties to be corrected hopefully later.

Why should ANY newspaper reprint the cartoons? They're unfunny and trash. Oh, they should be printed because we want to show we are adamant about free speech?...Poor reason. It could also imply, to some degree, that you agree with the nastiness of the cartoons, which most people don't. I'm no Islamofacist apologist either so don't bother. And why,pray tell, should any newspaper ADD fuel to a fire that is already raging?

Who cares what this Straw man thinks? Gitmo serves our purposes because it is outside of virtually all legal wrangling, manuvering, etc. It can't be a "gulag" anyway cause the prisoners don't "work". They are basically pampered if they behave.

Even if Mr.Bush WAS planning on going after Saddam pre-9-11,SO WHAT?! He was simply ahead of the curve and knew there was a danger for America down the road where Saddam could and almost certainly WOULD,eventually collaborate with Bin Laden, N.Korea, or some really evil group. Sept.11 only underscored the importance of regime change, which was already U.S. policy under Clinton. This whole thing about STRIKING FIRST, without having been attacked yet, seems to be literally beyond the imagination of liberals.

Fear is indeed a weapon in this war and one can only hope that the majority in the West don't succumb to that fear. All this hullabaloo about the cartoons is simply HASTENING the day and focusing the evil of Islamofacism and therefore its ultimate defeat. Not enough Europeans are on board yet but the tide is surely turning. Will they just roll over to the fear or will they be more like America?! I think the latter but the jury is still out it seems.

How could such a massive strike by U.S. "speed up the programme"...? That makes no sense at all. I can't imagine a scenario (wish I could) where war can be AVOIDED. I'm talking about a REALISTIC scenario. I don't think they will be stopped with threats,conferences,diplomatic overtures, boycotts,or appeasement. Ain't gonna happen.