More Dispirited Conservatives

John O'Sullivan:

That leads onto the most significant point of all: Israel lost. Though it had the overt support of the U.S. and the covert support of Europe and Middle Eastern governments for almost five weeks, it failed to gain its main objectives. When the fighting was eventually stopped by the device of a U.N. Security Council Resolution backed by the U.S., Hezbollah was still fighting. And it will soon replenish its supplies of arms from Iran and of men from the young Shia Muslims inspired by its “victory” (i.e., avoidance of outright defeat.) The wider international picture is still more alarming. Former German Foreign Minister, Joshcka Fischer, had described in advance the three larger war aims of the radical Iran-Syria-etc.:

first to ease pressure on Hamas from within the Palestinian community to recognize Israel; second to undermine democratization in Lebanon, which was marginalizing Syria; and third to lift attention from the emerging dispute over the Iranian nuclear program and demonstrate to the West the "tools" at its disposal in the case of a conflict.


All three of these were achieved. The radical coalition took on the international community and it won. As a result the international community has shifted its stance. France has been criticized for weakening its original cease-fire resolution in response to pressure from Lebanon and the Arab League. But France, Lebanon, and the Arab League were all responding to the unpleasant fact of Hezbollah’s victory.

Both Israel and the U.S. also made such a shift by agreeing to a cease-fire that ended the campaign prematurely for them, shattered the vital myth of Israeli invincibility, encouraged its other enemies to join or at least appease the radical coalition, and placed Israel at a legal and strategic disadvantage in future conflicts.

As is already becoming clear, the ceasefire will be only partially implemented. Hezbollah will not be disarmed. The U.N. arms embargo on weapons from Iran and Syria will not be enforced. And the new UNIFIL force will have neither the numbers nor the material to enforce the ceasefire on unwilling warriors — especially if the Lebanese government begins to take its orders from the more powerful Hezbollah in its midst.

Yet as Caroline Glick of the Jerusalem Post predicted and as Kofi Annan confirmed this weekend, Israel will face international criticism — and perhaps criminalization — if it violates the terms of the cease fire when it is responding to the refusal of its enemies to observe them.

The lesson from all this is: Don’t lose a war. But Israel will also draw the second lesson that follows directly from it: If a nation in Israel’s fundamentally weak strategic situation has lost a war, it must win the next war convincingly and pretty soon.

Walter E. Williams:

Our adversaries in the Middle East have advantages that the axis powers didn't have -- the Western press and public opinion. We've seen widespread condemnation of alleged atrocities and prisoner mistreatment by the U.S., but how much media condemnation have you seen of beheadings and other gross atrocities by Islamists?

Terrorists must be pleased by statements of some members of Congress, such as those by Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., who recently said, "I don't take sides for or against Hezbollah." Hezbollah, backed by Iran, is responsible for the 1983 bombing of Beirut barracks killing 241 U.S. service members.

I'm not suggesting that we rush to use our nuclear capacity to crush states that support terrorism. I'm sure there are other less drastic military options. What I am suggesting is that I know of no instances where appeasement, such as the current Western modus operandi, has borne fruit.

What Europeans say about what should be done about terrorist states should fall on deaf ears. Their history of weakness and cowardice during the 1930s goes a long way toward accounting for the 60 million lives lost during World War II. During the mid-'30s, when Hitler started violating the arms limitations of the Versailles Treaty, France and Britain alone could have handily defeated him, but they pursued the appeasement route.

Anyone who thinks current Western appeasement efforts will get Iran to end its nuclear weapons program and end its desire to eliminate Israel is dumber than dumb. Appeasement will strengthen Iran's hand, and it looks as if the West, including the United States, is willing to be complicit in that strengthening.

Cal Thomas:

Soloman says Americans must demand from the leading Islamic hierarchy, such as the Muslim World League and the Union of Imams, a fatwa that makes it clear "that this is not what the text means and that these texts are no longer effective. They have passed their date. But if they remain effective and eternally valid, then in America we have a serious problem."

How serious? He says. "They are infiltrating and undermining every part of this society. We are promoting Islamic mortgages, Islamic insurance companies. There are 29 banks in the United States promoting Islamic banking. Since 1999, Dow Jones has launched Dow Jones Islamic Index and has subjected itself to be governed by an international Sharia board." (Sharia is the religious law of Islam outlined in the Koran.)

Soloman adds, "The Islamic organizations have their missionaries and there are active or sleeping cells in this country." He mentions one, Tablighi Jamaat, "a Pakistani organization that is hand-in-glove with the Wahaabis, strong Muslim sects known for their strict observance of the Koran, and a strong facilitator of al-Qaida and other factions of terrorism. They alone have 1,000 missionaries in New York, 50,000 across the United States. This is only one organization. In 1994, I took a map and started putting pins in it. I found there is not a single state without a mosque. Since then (the number) has increased."

There is not a chance in hell of any such awakening happening in America anytime soon.

All you need to do to see this is to witness how desperately we cling to our politically-correct little pieties in the face of all evidence to the contrary that 1) there are a significant number of Muslim men trying to kill us and 2) there efforts have wide international support.

Live or die. That's the choice.

Meanwhile, we still jaw-jaw while the Islamofascists war-war, to paraphrase Churchill, who knew a thing or two about the perils of the appeasement mentality.