Evil succeeds when good men do nothing.
There are times when a cancer can be extirpated with minimal effort and collateral damage. Yet in the metastatic state, a cure may be almost as harmful as the disease.
Those ‘peaceful Muslims’ are akin to the ‘good Germans’ who were incinerated at Dresden. Most had done not overt deed to cause others harm but they did little to halt the spread of evil. Residents of Berlin (also a target) were never the most enthusiastic partisans of the Third Reich and some of them did stand up against evil.
The fall of the Shah was aided and abetted by Jimmy Carter and we may never know the true story. What followed was to create havoc. Iran is not an Arab state and many Arabs hold their faith in contempt. The role of Iraq in the current international mischief making cannot be discounted and cries out for the sternest of actions to change the regime. It should be done with as little collateral damage as possible but diplomacy is not part of the solution.
There are some who would retaliate for a future mass murder attack on American soil with a response against a high-profile target. Some of our enemies would like to create such a scenario, one that would ignite global jihad. Superstition can trump common sense. This would create a war that would cause a loss of life that would me measured in the hundreds of millions and the industrialized nations would win, albeit at an unthinkable cost for all.
There are few politicians in this country who could oppose such a response, given the public demand. Remember the Maine was a war-cry based on suspicions (later proven wrong) and a future affront on the scale of 9/11 would have an even harsher impact on the public sentiment.
The alternative is a vigorous and continued use of available assets to fight a multi-theater war against an amorphous enemy and hit them where it will hurt. This could be a daunting task, given those who would sacrifice national security before a pantheon of false gods of pacifism, (temporary) political advantage, selective civil libertarianism, instant gratification, and sentimentalism.
Fighting evil with pacifism is like taking a shower with a rain slicker on.
Uh-huh:
” WASHINGTON – Every effort should be made to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, but failing that, the world could live with a nuclear-armed regime in Tehran, a recently retired commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East said Monday.
John Abizaid, the retired Army general who headed Central Command for nearly four years, said he was confident that if Iran gained nuclear arms, the United States could deter it from using them.” [...]
“There are ways to live with a nuclear Iran,” Abizaid said in remarks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank. “Let’s face it, we lived with a nuclear Soviet Union, we’ve lived with a nuclear China, and we’re living with (other) nuclear powers as well.”
[...]
“War, in the state-to-state sense, in that part of the region would be devastating for everybody, and we should avoid it — in my mind — to every extent that we can,” he said. “On the other hand, we can’t allow the Iranians to continue to push in ways that are injurious to our vital interests.”
He suggested that many in Iran — perhaps even some in the Tehran government — are open to cooperating with the West. The thrust of his remarks was a call for patience in dealing with Iran, which President Bush early in his first term labeled one of the “axis of evil” nations, along with North Korea and Iraq.