That dovetails nicely with his last, 'The Silent Imams.' Apparently, the US has finally given these extremist Islamic fundamentalists something to [b]be silent about[/b]!

[size=4]Victory Changes Everything . . .[/size=4]
By Charles Krauthammer
Friday, November 30, 2001; Page A41

Hundreds of holy warriors lie dead in a prison near Mazar-e Sharif. Ramadan is violated by the hail of American bombs. Infidel Americans land in force on Muslim soil near Kandahar. "We now own a piece of Afghanistan," says Brig. Gen. James Mattis.

Just weeks ago the Middle East experts were warning that such violations of Islamic sensibilities would cause an explosion of anti-Americanism. [b]Where, then, is the vaunted "Arab street," the pro-Osama demonstrations, the anti-American riots? Where are the seething masses rising up against America and its nominal allies from Egypt to Pakistan?[/b]

[b]Nowhere to be seen. Bin Laden T-shirts are going begging in Peshawar. The street is silent.[/b]

The Middle East experts, who a decade ago made identical warnings that war on Iraq would cause the Arab world to rise against us, don't get it. They never do. Indeed, with the war on terrorism poised to expand beyond Afghanistan, the experts are already repeating these dire -- and false -- predictions.

In a prescient lecture Oct. 20, Middle East Quarterly editor Martin Kramer (who has just published "Ivory Towers on Sand," a devastating critique of the illusions and biases advanced by the Middle East studies programs throughout American academia) explained why: [b]The way to tame the Arab street is not with appeasement and sweet sensitivity but with raw power and victory.[/b]

Kramer's indisputable point was that there has always been and always will be poverty and oppression, anger and resentment in the Arab world. And much of it will be directed against America. That is a constant. The variable factor is whether America commands respect or contempt.

The Arab street has fallen silent not because the president hosted Muslim envoys for a White House Iftar dinner. Nor because American children convinced their Muslim pen pals of our goodwill toward Islam. But because the United States astonished the street with one of history's great shows of arms: destroying a regime 7,000 miles away, landlocked and far from American bases, solely with air power and a few soldiers on the ground -- and with but a single combat death (thus far).

- continued -

The Taliban's collapse shattered two myths: Islamic invincibility and American weakness -- myths amplified over eight years by the Clinton administration's empty gestures and demonstrable impotence in the face of Islamic terror.

The Islamic street exploded after Sept. 11, not because of rage -- the rage is there always -- but because of triumphalism. The war that began with the 1983 bombings in Beirut had finally been taken to the American homeland. [b]America lay bleeding, "filled with horror and fear from north to south and east to west," bin Laden boasted. This was their day and they were going to seize it.[/b]

Turns out it is not their day. Osama was wrong. America is no paper tiger. The street now knows it. The world knows it. Which is why it is time for us to seize the moment.

Our astonishing display of power has demonstrated the deadly seriousness of the Bush Doctrine. We will no longer fecklessly go after low-level terrorist operatives in a New York court, or even more ridiculously in The Hague. We are, instead, at war with their leaders and, even more important, with the regimes that harbor them. It is now a capital offense to harbor terrorists. Literally. Harbor them and your regime dies.

We not only have enunciated a new doctrine. We have demonstrated both the will and the power to carry it out. The fruits are already visible. What regime, after all, is going to provide bin Laden safe harbor?

The elementary truth that seems to elude the experts again and again -- Gulf War, Afghan war, next war -- is that power is its own reward. Victory changes everything, psychology above all. [b]The psychology in the region is now one of fear and deep respect for American power.[/b] Now is the time to use it to deter, defeat or destroy the other regimes in the area that are host to radical Islamic terrorism.

Hence Stage Two. No, not Iraq yet. It surely is the worst terrorist threat, but because it is the worst and the most difficult, it will require more planning, and more political and military preparation. Now is the time to go for the low-hanging fruit: giving the Philippines assistance in crushing their own al Qaeda guerrillas. Telling the thugs running Sudan, Syria, Libya and Yemen to cease and desist, to shut down the training camps, to cough up the terrorists -- "or else," as the president so delicately puts it.

[b]And then on to Iraq. The experts are already warning us that we dare not, lest the Arab street rise against us. They never learn.[/b]

See article at:[url]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36680-2001Nov29.html[/url]

Eric The(Krauthammer'sOnARoll!)Hun[>]:)]

YES! Someone else has seen the light! We need to go after those who are directly harming Americans FIRST.

Ever think that Sept 11 WAS the arabs rising against us? They probably knew they couldn't take us on directly, so they flew airplanes into buildings instead.
Neo-cons never learn.

I did.

And Libertarians never know when to shut up.
No, Sep 11 wasn't "the Arabs" rising against us, it was one group of terrorists trying to score a political coup.  When "the Arabs" see what happens to them, they won't be trying this again.

I'm not going to shut up.  Osama succeeded in taking away a number of freedoms from all Americans.  He in effect, won, albeit not on the battlefield.  He has managed to accelerate the police state not only in the US, but in Europe as well.  

Don't think this is over.  It hasn't even really begun.  

For one thing, America is becoming more and more diverse and less educated.  How many people do you even know who have a clear understanding of the Constitution, Bill of Rights, or basic rule of law?  Most people I talk to (if they can even form an opinion) seem to think that government is free to do anything it wants and that democracy is "mob rule", capitalism is the root of all evil, and social justice trumps all.  My conclusion is that the slow death from within makes whatever happens overseas practically a moot point.

Second, I don't know how many Muslims there are in the world, but they far outnumber the Christians and Jews.  If Osama and his ilk succeed in motivating even a significant fraction of Muslims into fighting an all-out Holy War against the US, there won't be enough bullets and bombs to kill them all.    

Of course not. If you knew when to shut up, you wouldn't be a whiner...oops, I mean "Libertarian."

Sorry trickshot, you are wrong.  You have no grasp of the industrial output capabilities of our country.

RikWriter, you causing trouble here too?

Punkatomic, you obssessing over me here too?