Haunted by the Ghosts of Chamberlains Past

It's no secret that Iran, and to a lesser degree, Syria, are responsible for supplying weapons to our enemies in Iraq, as well as encouraging would-be terrorists from their own lands to join the ranks of the blood-thirsty Islamo-fascist militias that our military and the Iraqi Army faces on a daily basis in the area known as the Sunni Triangle.

Both of these countries also directly support Hezbollah, the most well-organized terrorist group in the world, and next to Al-Qaeda, the most deadly. The United States and Israel know full well the threat posed by this extremist faction and their patron states, yet year after year passes with no substantial military action being taken against them. Why?

It's all well and good that we are expending every available resource to destroy Al-Qaeda and its confederates worldwide, but for some inexplicable reason the terrorist organization which was responsible for more American deaths prior to 9/11 than any other in history is largely ignored by the Bush Administration. Israel as well seems to have concluded that taking the fight to these parasites isn't worth the trouble, and every time I think about what's going on in Lebanon these days, my stomach begins composing an overture to the next 'Star Wars' sequel.

Hezbollah is treated as if it were little more than a minor nuisance by the only two countries on earth that have ever exhibited any real, long-term commitment to advancing the cause of liberty in the Middle East, and I can't for the life of me understand the mindset of the people charged with leading the free world in this global conflict we commonly refer to as the "War On Terrorism".

It's no surprise to me that the many thousands of virulent anti-Semites who inhabit every major global news outlet, left-wing government, and internationalist organization are more than happy to side with these radical Islamo-fascists as they make war against the state of Israel. Dirtbags like Kofi Annan and Vladimir Putin will support anyone who hates Jews, regardless of the negative, long-term affects of their actions upon everyone else. But why would George W. Bush and Ehud Olmert behave as if Hezbollah didn't deserve to be wiped off the face of the planet, and their benefactors in Iran and Syria right along with them?

While we were fighting against Japan and Germany in World War II, we didn't just turn a blind eye to Italy! Yes, the Japanese were our main target at first, and as soon as we got our act together, we went after the leader of the pack, the Nazis, but at no time did we ever say to ourselves that Mussolini's fascist army didn't have a major ass-whooping coming to it.

This is war, damnit! Why aren't we kicking the living crap out of every terrorist we can find, no matter what name is applied to his particular extremist organization? And why the hell are we even considering negotiating with the leaders of nations which have clearly sided with our enemies in this war, especially one that's determined to build a nuclear bomb and thinks that Israel should be, in the words of its own president, "wiped off the map"?

Anyone who thinks that Iran's leaders can be bargained with, or that threatening them with some useless U.N. resolution is going to dissuade them from eventually turning Jerusalem into a parking lot, is crazier than Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. How many times does diplomacy have to fail before the democracies of the west come to the realization that the only way to stop violent despots from threatening the world is to bomb them and their followers into dust?

The last time the United States took the approach to warfare that we're taking today, we won every major battle we fought... right up until the day we lost the war. That was over 30 years ago, and an entire generation of our best and bravest has yet to recover fully from that politically-engineered defeat.

The main difference between the current war and Vietnam is that losing this time around won't just humiliate us and leave hundreds of thousands of innocent foreigners to be slaughtered at the hands of our enemies. No, failing to achieve victory against the forces of Islamo-fascism will, in all likelihood, lead to a nuclear holocaust on our own soil!

If you thought Hitler was a menace, try Hitler with ten megatons of nuclear destructive force at his disposal, and fifty million followers so fanatical that they would willingly give their lives to ensure the utter annihilation of every Jew and Christian on earth.

Do you think I'm just trying to scare you with all this doomsday scenario stuff? If you do then think again! I haven't even attempted to describe the devastation of an actual nuclear strike on an American city, nor is it my desire to do so at this time. Suffice it to say that the things you've imagined in your worst nightmares don't begin to equal the horrors of such a reality.

Kim Jong Il managed to get his grubby little hands on a nuclear weapon by promising that he'd play nice with the rest of the world if only President Clinton would stop insisting he treat his own people like human beings. Slick Willy left himself wide open to a hell of a sucker-punch back in the '90s, and now there's one more tin-pot dictator in the world with the ability to kill more people in a single day than Pol Pot did in his entire murderous career.

Still, as lunatic regimes go, the one led by Chairman Kim is at least manageable. China's leaders, even though they are no allies of ours, do indeed recognize that a nuclear North Korea threatens the stability of the very region they inhabit, and will do what is necessary to keep its barking-mad leader from going postal on South Korea, Japan, or any other country in the neighborhood. Little Kim isn't about to screw with the ChiComs, regardless of his posturing, and at least for the time being, the threat of his arsenal remains relatively minimal.

However, the same cannot be said of the current Iranian government. Like Hitler's dreaded Third Reich, this malignant cabal is composed of stark-staring maniacs who apparently fear no one. Moreover, their objectives are founded in an ideology which has existed since "the prophet" Muhammad himself walked the earth some 1,500 years ago, and belief systems that old tend to die hard.

Tell me, does this seem to you like the best time in history for the American people to pack it in? Should the Israelis retreat within the ever-shrinking borders of their own country, and pray that those who've conspired against them from the day their nation was established will just decide to stop attacking them for no apparent reason?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but free people are obliged to fight for liberty every day of their lives, no matter what the odds, no matter what the cost, no matter what some defeatist coward may have to say about it. Free people are free because they're FIGHTERS, not because they roll over and expose their bellies every time some punk gets in their face!

Sir Winston Churchill once said:

"You ask, What is our policy? I will say; it is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us: to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, What is our aim? I can answer with one word: Victory... victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival."

He made that statement over 60 years ago in reference to the global struggle against Nazism, one of the greatest threats to humanity in the annals of recorded history, and second only to Communism in terms of the number of innocent people exterminated in its name during the 20th century.

Of course, Churchill recognized the threat of Hitler's regime well before the start of World War II, and spoke out against the irrational view of his fellow countrymen that the Germans could be pacified. His warnings fell on deaf ears, however, and as history now shows, a catastrophe of unparalleled proportions soon followed. The appeasers within the British government and elsewhere around the word waited too long to try and stop Hitler's war machine, and their naiveté led directly to the slaughter of tens of millions of people.

Pursuing peace with a group of fanatics whose stated intentions from the beginning were to eliminate the Jews and conquer the world (sound familiar?) proved to be so profoundly idiotic that applying the term 'brain dead' to the people who tried it, would only be acceptable today if doing so wasn't such an insult to the clinically deceased. At least the dead have a good reason for not fighting evil when its standing right in front of them. What was the Allies' excuse for their inaction prior to the Nazi invasion of Poland?

And what is our generation's excuse for not striking at the heart of Islamo-fascism before it is able to unleash the power of an atomic weapon upon infidels like you, and your parents, and your children? The politicians who currently run the democracies of the world act like they have no recollection of the events of the 20th century, and seem more than willing to repeat the horrendous mistakes of the not-too-distant past.

They claim - just as their predecessors did in the 1930s - that they are merely seeking a peaceful resolution to the conflict at hand, but if you ask me, they have been stricken with rigor mortis of the spirit, and it is up to those of us who are not yet ready for the boneyard to take decisive action against the eternal forces of darkness while time is still on our side.

Tick - tick - tick...

Edward L. Daley is the owner of the Daley Times-Post
http://www.times-post.com