Hatred of Israel.

At the risk of sounding too religious, I'll trot out my little theory about Israel and its eternal problem with much of the rest of the world. It's probably something our gray heads like Jimmy, "the Peacemaker," Carter never considered, but the idea merits some small and serious consideration because the land couches at the navel of the world and has forever been a pivot about which the conscience of the old world slued.

I have always believed that as lomg as one Jew remains on the planet there will be hatred focussed on him because of the Almighty's covenant with the "sons of Abraham." It does not matter whether the target of the hatred is a practicing Jew or not, it only matters that God has sworn an oath with one family. It only matters that somewhere in the darkest and most minute reaches of that one person's DNA lies the intonation that the "Lord God is one God, and He is our God," and this causes other people of evil bent to despise him automatically.

From an entirely mundane standpoint, the Jews are a wonderfully adaptable individual race who can scrape a living out of a next to nothing piece of real estate like Israel, and of course, that's got to gall the ones who lived there during the Jewish absence, the ones who did little but subsist and infight and inbreed.

This hatred is cosmic violence that masquerades as fraternal politics, nothing more nor less than covetousness shrouded in a pretense of displacement, envy cloaked in feigned self righteousness.

Of course, the same could be said of the underclass on our own country...but that's a subject for another day.

As yet an improperly defined enemy

As astute as ever, Hansen lays out a wonderful commentary on the current situation, however one thing is omitted from our current discourse, and that is the fact that our enemy and his interests, his modus operandi, if you will has yet to be clearly described by anyone.

In WWII, the enemies had clearly legible goals and borders of encroachment. In the current war, the enemy's motives and goals have never been adequately illustrated by our officials. Because we are so cautious about racism, religious sensitivities, and inherent subtexts of any discussion, we have hamstrung ourselves by refusing to whip up righteous indignation against an enemy we do not clearly understand.

The current administration has dutifully and professionally managed this conflict as a matter of daily business rather than handling it as the crisis it is. Unfortunately, we on the home front still see this as a police action, not a real war.

Until we can accurately define the war as an international conflagration, we are doomed to endless recrimination and hysterical self blame by the left, who by the way roots itself in mainstream media.

Those of us who have seen death and destruction first hand are the only ones who can understand the threat sans benefit of incisive reports from our leaders. The rest are too comfortable with the illusion that we are safe from fanatics.

It is in doubt that our people will realize the true nature of this war until it is too late because we are so confident that no one in his right mind would attack us on our home turf. By then, it may be too late.

And so, Mr Putin, you're a bad one, but you're not the only one

We should remember that Putin does not operate in a vacuum, nor does he wield sole authority in Russia, and while he is powerful, his enablers have nearly equal authority. The man will retire soon, and his replacement will exercise even more power.

The United States operates from a very different platform, and considering today's political climate, our system is ill-equipped to deal with terrorism as effectively as Russia does. Their opposition risks personal death with the slightest objection. Our opposition risks civilization.

Indeed, the delicate balance between opposition and efficacy in this country is at once lifeline and tripwire. Lifeline upon which future freedom depends, tripwire with which to Claymore liberal democracy into oblivion.

The United States, curiously, can only count on other English speaking countries and a few lately liberated other countries with vibrant and vital Christian populations as soul sisters in conflict. The rest are merely remoras that grudgingly attach themselves for a short and convenient period to gain points for future trade-offs.

The world's organizational status is in upheaval after a brief respite. Things have changed. One might remember the elecrtic light bulb and its eventual impact on darkness. WTC was a major move in the opposite direction.

This war was never an option like some two-bit prize fight on a Thursday night. It is a more serious business than World War II.

Our job, as the thinkers and ponderers of this new age, is to forego linear thinking, to engulf this era with supreme lateral examination so that we may place Putin, et al, in proper perspective and against a backdrop of three dimensional history.

History right now is not a snapshot of one individual, nor is it a group shot of a graduating class. It is cinema 360, going on all around us, and we should hold tight the truth that we are not on the screen, we are on the focal point smack in the center.

Odd, though. This may be as alive as we ever get to be.

What does the NYT know, and when did they know it?

NYT knows something. Read their editorial on Pelosi this morning. It went from lukewarm two days ago to frigid today. Beginning from the exposure of nuclear plans seized from Iragi government and put up on the website and culminating with their clean and cutting editorials of the last week or so, these indicate to me that the editorial board is scared spitless about something....what they know they have not deigned to share, but they know something.

This shift is taking place throughout the Dem hierarchy. Hoyer's win by such a margin was concrete affirmation that the liberals finally get it.

It is a very spooky moment. If NYT makes a move toward a semblance of apology to Bush and his team, it will be in the form of criticism about not doing enough with Damascus and Teheran.

On the up side, it's good that NYT woke up; on the bad side, their sleep enhanced the danger by giving the bad guys valuable time to get their nuclear act together.

I see an attack here, which will totally discredit the liberals. Then, I see them jumping on board with a clamor for pre-emptive attacks on Syria and Iran.

The only thing that can save this situation is for an attack on Russia by Islamists spur Putin or his successor into an alliance with us, but don't bet on it. The crap table has better odds.

How Good Was Rumsfeld

Rumsfeld was as effective as he was allowed to be.

Same goes for Rice.

Remember when Kissinger displayed such stunning eclat with the "shuttle
diplomacy?" Afterward, he was not so effective....why?

When Henry the K was on the move in the shuttle, he was working for,
and backed up by, RMN, who everybody thought would pull the trigger
on a nuke if piqued.

Bush 42 is a good guy, but nobody thinks he's crazy, so they think he can
be pushed.....Democrats included.

If on 9/12/01, Bush had looked less like a Dad, and more like the Tasmanian
Devil, he would have been taken more seriously, and the Republicans would still be
in control of Congress because they would have been seriously afraid to cross him,
as well.

It's a scary world out there. Sometimes it's better to look like a demented pit bull
than a guard trained retriever.

Retirement of a Giant

There have always been men who do our hard jobs for us, the thankless, but necessary, tasks that require keen insight, yea, even prescience. It is not rare that these visionaries are vilified, nor is it uncommon that their achievements are belittled by lesser individuals, but the truth is that genius is rarely recognized by its contemporaries.

Mr. Rumsfeld did not need the job, he had a good one. He did not need a pinnacle to crown off his legacy, he'd already served many times and well. And, as we were reminded daily by the press and the liberals, the Secretary didn't need the aggrandizement for his ego, he was well supplied in that category.

He took the job for the challenge, certainly, but the overriding reason this terrifically talented guy spent his energy, intellect, stamina, and courage was because he knew it was his duty.

Duty is an underused word of late because so few can be bothered with such mundane matters....probably the reason our troops in the field know why they're there and the reason the critics don't get it.

Mr. Rumsfeld understands what his grunts understand...duty...that's why he was good at it. We owe him.

Thank you, Mr. Secretary. When it counted, you did your duty.

Reply to VDH on The Strange War via Austin Bay

Actually, this cult of the underdog is more symptomatic
of supreme arrogance of the liberal left than of
a deep and abiding sickness of the west. The elite, partly
habitated by the MSM, simply does not believe to any serious
degree that there is any danger posed by the threats of the
Islamofascisti, even when they see it with their own eyes.

The press lives by daily Rorscharchs called Arbitron Ratings and
circulation numbers and have no memory or historical base from
which to make judgments or to parse insights, unless, of course,
it is to revive half dead ex-FBI officials who will dredge up
the same old right bashing stories. Their best hope is to divert
attention from the common sense implications of today’s threats.

Real people understand, or perhaps intuit, the danger of forgetful-
ness. Why else would the New Minutemen movement have struck such a
hearty chord?

The real problem here is that the destruction of 9/11/01 was buried
sometime in April of 2003 when all that could have been said and
tolerated of the Twin Towers massacre was put to rest in the “morgues”
of the news services, as were the murders of Danny Pearl, et al.

Surgical air strikes, lightning attacks, tightly focussed firepower
are all well and good if infrastructure were all there was to a
regime and a mindset, but they are not. Gradual escalations always
lead to final cataclysms, i.e. Hiroshima. The true goal of warfare
is to destroy the enemies’ will to fight, to convict them that anything
is better than war, even surrender.

In this particular war, the fifth column of liberals needed to be
persuaded that anything was better than being a sitting duck for
terrorists, and we should probably should have unleashed unforgettable
destruction with terrifying collateral damage one hour after the
deadline. Nothing says “knock it off” to close observers like
a firestorm.

The delays made us look weak and provided time to plan a back door
war, and this in turn gave the liberal left time to equivocate,
snipe, and get their story together in order to blame a very
competent and decent President, and military, for the middle-Eastern
hatred and uptick the violence.

Are we sick? No. We are trying to be decent, but we have let the left
set the agenda which could change in the wink of an eye….
if the Islamofascisti find a way to offend the liberals and their
sisters in the press.

Remember the atomic bomb was developed and dropped by, you guessed
it, liberals who were forced into it by failed negotiations.

The rest of America gets it.

The McCain Myth Response

Democrats Won't Prevail

Mr. McCain kicked his presidential aspirations and probably his senatorial seat into the sewer when he worked to broker that deal with the Democratic "moderates." The Republican base is as angry as I have ever seen them, and it is making its anger felt.

I was called by a Republican fundraiser (a nice young woman) who told me that every last dependable giver laced into her because of the deal. Mr. McCain was mentioned prominently in every call.

The deal itself, mostly Bill Frist's fault, was the exact opposite of what the base wanted, but it was so revealing that it was a thing inevitable. It had to happen.

A few important revelations rose. One, Mr. McCain demonstrated his complete lack of perception into his other side colleagues. Does anyone want this guy staring down terrorists? Two, Mr. McCain edged himself into the "good old boys" clan where the art of the deal trumps the facts. Three, Mr. McCain showed exactly that he's been inside the club too long.

Even so, the liberals stand almost no chance of prevailing anytime soon. The electorate is ticked off. There's a war on, boys, and running heady exercises in politics won't cut it.

Mr. McCain and the rest better wise up, or they'll be looking for lobbyist jobs sooner than they expect. Recall worked in California, Arizona is right next door.