Now there?s a strategic vision for the 21st century. It worked for President Reagan in winning the Cold War against the Soviet Union and it will work for President Bush and his successors in the White House in winning the war against terrorism. If the foreign policy “experts” don?t mess it up first, that is, which they clearly are itching to do as Israel?s campaign against Hezbollah progresses despite growing protests from among sophisticated opinion-makers.
The itching is vividly on display as a parade of familiar voices from the foreign policy establishment wring hands and exchange far-ranging observations about how Bush is not being “strategic” on foreign policy, meaning Bush isn?t heeding the sage advice of the legions of career diplomats, foreign service officers, think tankers, academics and mainstream media figures who think a cease-fire by Israel at any cost is a positive step toward peace in the Middle East.
At the heart of such thinking is a moral obtuseness that cannot distinguish between the evil of Hezbollah?s purposeful placement of rocket launchers in densely populated areas among civilians and the entirely justified efforts of Israel to stop such madness. Yes, dozens of Lebanese civilians tragically died when Israel pinpointed and destroyed Hezbollah rocket launchers in Qana, but what kind of upside-down moral calculation condemns Israel instead of the Hezbollah leaders who put the weapons among those civilians in the first place? Unless it is used somehow to evacuate remaining civilians, it is difficult to see how the 48-hour suspension of Israeli air strikes can benefit anybody but Hezbollah, which will surely use the respite to entrench its weaponry even deeper into civilian areas of Southern Lebanon.
Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice were right to insist from the beginning of the current hostilities on something other than a cease-fire that allows the re-arming and equipping of the Hezbollah terrorist force occupying Lebanon and the similarly malevolent Hamas ranks in Gaza. So long as these two terrorist operations have as their fundamental reason-for-being the destruction of Israel and the defeat of the U.S., there is only one acceptable outcome for us ? Hezbollah and Hamas must be removed from Lebanon and Gaza. Until that happy day arrives, every terrorist killed by the Israel Defense Forces is one less terrorist able to attack the U.S. and its allies “over there” or here at home.Call it “simplistic” if you must, but from such clear, hard-headed realism is credible and survivable policy made.
The central truth of our era is that Islamofascists seek our destruction every bit as eagerly and madly as did Hitler and Tojo during World War II. The difference is that our adversaries today have already demonstrated their capacity to do what Hitler and Tojo could only dream about ? attacking and killing Americans by the thousands here in our homeland. Islamofascist terrorists of all stripes will only be more encouraged to kill here again if we succumb to the fashionable but ever-so-mushy thinking that seeks a Lebanon cease-fire without permanently removing Hezbollah from the scene.
