Yesterday the Derb was soundly criticized for his idiotic statistical projection that defies the laws of mathematics and today he has become the "idiot levant." Derb is getting senile, no doubt about it.

Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer were out cheerleading for more destruction and death from Israel onto the heads of the people of Lebanon. Two more phony Democrats who should re-register as members of the War Party. The neo-cons are dangerous warmongers. Peace

John Derbyshire exhibits pre-9/11 thinking. No matter what the USA does-even the US does-nothing, Islamists will attack us. Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel/Lebanon, 2002 Bali bombing, Chechneya (Beslan school massacre), Pakistan vs. India (Mumbai, India train bombing), UK (London 7/7 bombings), Canada (17 terrorists with 3 tons of ammonium nitrate), USA (NYC Path train plot), (Hezbollah cells in the US), etc., etc. These are all different fronts of the SAME WAR. Islamists are waging a Global Jihad against the non-Muslim world. It really is Islam vs. the Rest of the World. We can't just close our eyes and wish it all away. We must fight!

We must exercise restraint, and force the Israeli's into a cease-fire, so's the nice Hezbollah fellas can regroup, upgrade, and attack again. Just like LBJ in Vietnam...

here's the vaunted UN giving aid to Hamas terrorists. Nice job, "peacekeepers."

here's the vaunted UN giving aid to Hamas terrorists. Nice job, "peacekeepers."

Mark writes: "We have to take care of the problems in the middle east." I agree, to a point. Islamic Extremism is a major threat that will only grow, if it is not dealt with. If you plan to fix the problems in the middle east, you must be planning to invade more countries. If this is the plan, the Air Force and the Navy don't seem to be to busy, however, I don't think we have enough boots to put on the ground. Before invading more countries you need to ask the following questions: 1.)Actually toppling a regime is probably not to hard. The Air Force could take a country's government within a matter hours. The hard part is once you have removed the regime who do you replace the toppled regime with? 2.)As we don't want another insurgency, whose boots on the ground provide security? These questions among others will have to be pondered carefully and answered before we consider inserting the military in any other operations.

My goal is not to fix the middle east but to enhance American National security. If I can do this without bringing "Democracy" to another country I would do it. Fixing the middle east will likely involve setting up provisional governments that can lead them into representative Democracy. This would take decades, furthermore, its questionable whether or not we have the capability to do this any way!!

Even if we have the ability it is clear, at this time, the American people lack the will to carry out such a mission. Given this situation, neutralizing the threat would be good enough. To this end, if we could apply diplomatic pressure to Russia and China to get them to stop supporting the terrorist governments this would help significantly. It would not solve the entire problem but it would significantly degrade the capabilities of the terrorist supporting states. I sugest more attention should be focusd on Russia and China to try and persuade them to end support for these regimes. Also, we need to develop our own oil resources. This will help to starve the terrorists of funding. These would go a long way toward neutralizing the terrorist threat.

The neo-cons are dangerous warmongers.

"Peace" steve is a harmless moron. War

When are you guys gonna fix the problem with comments? Is it really that hard to fix?

The neo-cons are dangerous warmongers.

Oh lookie, the prole learned a new word - neocon. Hey beam of bright light from heavenly wisdom, if you're gonna be a war monger, don't you think you ought to be a dangerous one? I mean, come on.

I want to know exactly what a "neocon" is supposed to be.

Deconstructing the word, it should mean a "new conservative". Hmmm. Sounds good to me. You know, a conservative who is pragmatic enough to realize that conservatism has to take into account the fact that we can't unring the Dem bells regarding entitlements and so on, and is willing to try to work around them. Who is pragmatic enough to realize we can't deport people just for entering the country illegally. That kind of "new".

I know the Left has tried to make it sound like a bad thing, but that would mean they thought what they must call the "old" conservatives were good. So tell us, what is the difference between old and new conservatism, and why is the new brand worse than the old one? (This ought to be good.)

As far as "neorad" goes, that's easy. Radicals of all stripes are dogmatic, intolerant, hyper-emotional, and irrational---it's just that the new version has found a way to hold an entire party hostage to its insanity.

And steve, just a bit of advice---you really need to start coming on more like a, dare I say it, a MAN? You sound so Valley Girl, in a whiny insipid psuedo-hippy way. Actually, I envision you as one of those bald-on-top, ratty ponytail dudes, basking in the faded glory of the SDS days. Kind of Peter Yarrowish.........

Mark, Derbyshire's been off the reservation for awhile now. He's also taken a "not worth it" stance on Iraq. He's part of the reason that National Review (especially the corner) is more freakshow than 'must read.'

Rev,

Seemingly - it is annoying us all to heck and gone, too...and we're paying for it! It is being worked on...

Mark,

I have learned just to go onto another string if it happens, and come back later. Generally my comment will be in, as well as others.

As for getting it right or wrong in the MidEast, until the US went into Iraq and then Isreals actions I would say most countries were getting it wrong. The only way you could say we would get it wrong now is if the US pulls out or Isreal bows to EU pressure. I hope and pray neither happens.

*Sighs*

Sometimes I wish we could just ignore the middle east and wash our hands of it. But I know the old saying holds true here, "Evil prevails when good men do nothing."

B Poster,

In my view, anything less than a complete re-making of the middle east, even if it means by force and is quite expensive, is the only way to ensure that a more costly war does not arise in the future.

Point of fact, the European colonial powers should never have entered either Africa or the middle east - and, once they were in, they then left entirely too soon. We are now picking up the pieces of those disasterous policies done by other nations. We can either pick up the pieces and do our entire duty as the most powerful nation in the world, or we can shirk it and seek only our own ends, and thus meet neither the needs of our fellows over there, nor our needs for security here at home.

As it was in 1938, so it is today - we are faced with a choice between war and shame...and if we choose shame, we'll end up getting war, too.

kj

My feeling is that we deal with it now, rather than waiting.

Back in 2002 I wrote a piece called "Cassandra in the 20th Century"...about all the calls for action against evil when it first arose, and how the voices of "peace" drowned out the "warmongers", only to have longer and worse wars eventuate...

Our enemies want war - we must give it to them.

Mark- This conflict is centuries old, and is handed down through generations. We do not have the ability to remake the Middle East in our image so that our interests are protected. Just look at how expensive, time-consuming and fruitless our attempt at regime change has been in a single country (Iraq).
Are we prepared for thousands and thousands of our soldiers to come home in flag-draped coffins (Yes, I'm sure the Pentagon will want to ban the pictures then!) and for hundreds of thousands of civilian lives to be sacrificed, while we become occupiers and invaders of the region? I did not understand the invasion of Iraq, or support it, and I definitely do not understand the type of thinking that would destabilize an entire region.
Are you one of those nuts who is waiting for Armegeddon and the Rapture? It must have occurred to you that the terrorists do not accept defeat and pass their grievances against the West down to the next generation. Also, our policies in Iraq, Afghanistan and our support of Israel have turned many moderate Arabs into extremists -they are an extremely effective recruiting tool

We would be proceeding without allied support, with a military that is already stretched thin, and in a weakened condition. Hopefully, cooler heads than yours will prevail. Remember: there has always been evil in the world and always will be-we have no hope of eliminating it-nor should that be our goal ---unless we are attacked or under direct threat of attack. To the terrorists-we are the evil ones- The Great Satan-they believe that their God is on their side-just the way you do.

It is being worked on...

Helpful hint: When you are attempting to indicate action, do not use the passive voice. Sounds like liberal-talk.

Mark,

Did you do any research about wars which were entered into, come to find out that it only inflamed the situation, and caused more death and destruction?

"The past is prophetic in that it asserts loudly that wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows." — Martin Luther King, Jr.

If you are not in a state of grace at death, your new life(soul) will be one of pain and misery. Your condemnation is your own, for God is within each of us. Those that advocate and support war have fallen from grace. Peace

Did you do any research about wars which were entered into, come to find out that it only inflamed the situation, and caused more death and destruction?

Guess we shouldn't drive cars. The more we put on the road, the higher the death toll. Wars cause death. That's profound. I thought the troops were going over to the Middle East for the same reason Humphrey Bogart's character Rick Blaine gave to the Nazi General Stasser for why he'd come to Casalblanca:

"I came for the waters."

And Strasser said, "Waters? There are no waters in Casablanca"

To which Rick said, "I was misinformed."

"The past is prophetic in that it asserts loudly that wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows." — Martin Luther King, Jr.

So, you cite a far-left peacenik as an expert on war? Hahahaha! I have to give you credit, you just keep pulling these cheap tricks out of your hollow log. Reminds me of an old song by Jim Stafford, wherein these lines are contained:

And so we took a stroll
Wound up down by the swimmin' hole
And she said, "Do what you want to do"
I got silly and I found a frog
In the water by a hollow log
And I shook it at her
And I said "This frog's for you"

We ain't buyin' yer frog.

"More than an end to war, we want an end to the beginning of all wars — yes, an end to this brutal, inhuman and thoroughly impractical method of settling the differences between governments." — Franklin D. Roosevelt

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron." — Dwight D. Eisenhower, U.S. President, Republican Party

"A strange game. The only winning move is not to play." — A computer named WOPR in the film WarGames

"If we let people see that kind of thing, there would never again be any war." — Pentagon official on why US military censored graphic footage from the Gulf War

"Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount." — General Omar Bradley

"More than an end to war, we want an end to the beginning of all wars — yes, an end to this brutal, inhuman and thoroughly impractical method of settling the differences between governments." — Franklin D. Roosevelt

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron." — Dwight D. Eisenhower, U.S. President, Republican Party

"A strange game. The only winning move is not to play." — A computer named WOPR in the film WarGames

"If we let people see that kind of thing, there would never again be any war." — Pentagon official on why US military censored graphic footage from the Gulf War

"Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount." — General Omar Bradley

More than an end to war...

Double posting, after getting on others for doing it, mr. hypocrite? I know, it isn't your fault. Nothing ever is.

You can dispense with the quotes. Anybody can dig up a quote:

“The Israelis know that if the Iraqi or the Iranian army came across the Jordan River, I would personally grab a rifle, get in a ditch, and fight and die,” - Slick Willie

Now do you think he'd grab a rifle? Him? The draft dodger?

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

This much we pledge -- and more.

John F. Kennedy, warmonger? See how far the Democrats have wandered from the vision of this great man? He must be turning in his grave at what has become of his beloved party.

"Having found the bomb we have used it. We have used it against those who attacked us without warning at Pearl Harbor, against those who have starved and beaten and executed American prisoners of war, against those who have abandoned all pretense of obeying international laws of warfare. We have used it in order to shorten the agony of war, in order to save the lives of thousands and thousands of young Americans."
("Public Papers of the Presidents: Harry S Truman, 1945", pg. 212).

Genocidal maniac? No Republican has ever wreaked that kind of destruction on mankind - before or since.

Another from HS Truman:

Carry the battle to them. Don't let them bring it to you. Put them on the defensive and don't ever apologize for anything.

Give 'em Hell, Harry.

"I believe that international terrorism is a modern form of warfare against liberal democracies. I believe that the ultimate but seldom stated goal of these terrorists is to destroy the very fabric of democracy. I believe that it is both wrong and foolhardy for any democratic state to consider international terrorism to be 'someone else's' problem.... Liberal democracies must acknowledge that international terrorism is a 'collective problem.'"

Scoop Jackson, Democrat, speaking in Jerusalem in 1974

"I believe that international terrorism is a modern form of warfare against liberal democracies. I believe that the ultimate but seldom stated goal of these terrorists is to destroy the very fabric of democracy. I believe that it is both wrong and foolhardy for any democratic state to consider international terrorism to be 'someone else's' problem.... Liberal democracies must acknowledge that international terrorism is a 'collective problem.'"

Scoop Jackson, Democrat, speaking in Jerusalem in 1974