Waiting for the bomb to drop...

... but where?



Five Minutes to Midnight, by Robert Tracinski

... Observing the events of today—the hesitation and uncertainty, the stubborn clinging to the fantasy that the enemy can be appeased if we just keep talking and find the right diplomatic solution—I now feel that, for the first time, I really understand the leaders of the 1930s. Their illusion that Hitler could be appeased has always seemed, in historical hindsight, to be such a willful evasion of the facts that I have never grasped how it was possible for those men to deceive themselves. But I can now see how they clung to their evasions because they could not imagine anything worse than a return to the mass slaughter of the First World War. They wanted to believe that something, anything could prevent a return to war. What they refused to imagine is that, in trying to avoid the horrors of the previous war, they were allowing Hitler to unleash the much greater horrors of a new war.

Today's leaders and commentators have less excuse. The "horror" they are afraid of repeating is the insurgency we're fighting in Iraq—a war whose cost in lives, dollars, and resolve is among the smallest America has ever had to pay. And it takes no great feat of imagination to project how much more horrible the coming conflict will be if we wait on events long enough for Iran to arm itself with nuclear technology. Among the horrific consequences is the specter of a new Holocaust, courtesy of an Iranian nuclear bomb.

The good news, such as it is, is that the air of foreboding about this new war is somewhat exaggerated. Yes, the conflict will become larger and bloodier—far bloodier than it would have been had we acted earlier. But Iran is not Nazi Germany—a large, united, economically and technologically advanced nation that could nearly equal our military capability. Iran is a poor, backward nation with a large, restive dissident movement. Its military bluster is a hollow shell hiding its underlying weakness. It's time to break that shell and kill the monster inside—before it grows any bigger and more powerful.

We can all sense that the war is coming. It is vital for America to seize the initiative and fight it on our terms, when we have the maximum advantage.

It's five minutes to midnight. The time to strike Iran is now.

War for oil... or for freedom? Who is the enemy?

The one thing that stuck with me from the recent debriefings of Centanni and Wigg was the notion from their captors that all of the war and conflict could be avoided if we would simply convert to Islam.

There it is. That is what we're up against. That is the evolving threat that we are facing and need to answer on behalf of our children: do we stand up for western values of freedom, equality, democracy, etc... or do we sit down and hope that the threat isn't real and that we won't one day be forced at gunpoint to convert to Islam and Islamic Law.

If not now, when? If not us, who? If it's not real, what is it?

Are we willing to face the real "inconvenient truth"?

... The West better decide on the answers to the questions or be prepared to live under Shariah Law in a totalitarian Islamic state. The question that has to be answered is: Would you choose appeasement and wind up as a lampshade in a palace or fight for Western democracy, freedom and liberty? ...

Help.