Getting to the heart of the matter

...and begging the question: Why aren't our leaders telling us the truth? Hugh Fitzgerald on "Islamophobia":

The word "Islamophobia" must be held up for inspection and its users constantly asked precisely how they would define that word. They should be put on the defensive for waving about what is clearly meant to be a scare-word that will silence criticism.

So let us ask them, which of the following criticisms of Islam is to be considered "Islamophobia":

1) Muhammad is a role-model for all time. Muhammad married Aisha when she was 6 and had sexual intercourse with her when she was 9. I find appalling that Muslims consider this act of Muhammad to be that of the man who is in every way a role-model, and hence to be emulated. In particular, I am appalled that virtually the first act of the Ayatollah Khomeini, a very orthodox and learned Shi'a theologian, was to lower the marriageable age of girls in Iran to 9 -- because, of course, it was Aisha's age when Muhammad had sexual relations with her.

2) I find appalling that Islam provides a kind of Total Regulation of the Universe, so that its adherents are constantly asking for advice as to whether or not, for example, they can have wear their hair in a certain way, grow their beards in a certain way, wish an Infidel a Merry Christmas (absolutely not!).

3) I find appalling the religiously-sanctioned doctrine of taqiyya -– a doctrine that has its sources in the Qur'an itself (3:28 and 16:106).

4) I find appalling many of the acts which Muhammad committed, including his massacre of the Banu Qurayza, his ordering the assassination of many of those he deemed his opponents, even an old man, a woman, or anyone whom, he thought, merely mocked him.

5) I find appalling the hatred expressed throughout the Qur'an, the hadith, and the sira for Infidels -- all Infidels.

6) I find nauseating the historic imposition of the jizya on Infidels, the requirement that they wear identifying garb on their clothes and dwellings, that they not be able to build or repair houses of worship without the permission of Muslim authorities, that they must ride donkeys sidesaddle and dismount in the presence of Muslims, that they have no legal recourse against Muslims for they are not equal at law -- and a hundred other things, designed to insure their permanent, as the canonical texts say, "humiliation." A practice from the past, you say? Or a practice that in many ways can still be detected, in the shabby treatment of non-Muslims all over the Muslim world, from the mistreatment of Copts, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Maronites, Armenians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, all the ay to the disguised jizyah of the Bumpitura system in Malaysia.

7) I find the mass murder of 60-70 million Hindus over 250 years of Mughal rule, and the destruction of tens of thousands of artifacts and Hindu (and Buddhist) temples, some of the them listed in two volumes edited by Sita Ram Goel and others, appalling.

8) I find the 1300-year history of the persecution of the Zoroastrians, some of it continuing to this day according the great scholar of Zoroastrianism, Mary Boyce, which has led to their reduction to a mere 150,000, something to deplore. There are piquant details in her works, including the deliberate torture and killing of the dogs (which are revered by Zoroastrians), even by small Muslim children who are taught to so behave.

9) I find the record of Muslim intellectual achievement lacking, and I attribute this lack to the failure to encourage free and skeptical inquiry, which is necessary for, among other things, the development of modern science. I find convincing the argument that there was some intellectual activity in non-Muslim lands for a few centuries after the initial conquest, as long as the Christians and Jews (in the Middle East) were still a significant and fructifying influence, and that when they ceased to be, such activity came to an abrupt end.

10) I deplore the prohibition on sculpture or on paintings of living things. I deplore the horrific vandalism and destruction of Christian, Jewish, Zoroastrian, Hindu, and Buddhist sites, from the thousands of temples, right up to today, with the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan, pre-Islamc archeological sites vandalized all over Iraq, and in Europe itself, churches and statues in public the object of attack and destruction.

11) I deplore that part of Muslim jurisprudence which renders all treaties between Infidels and Muslims worthless from the viewpoint of the Infidels, though worth a great deal from the viewpoint of the Muslims, for they are only signing a "hudna," a truce-treaty rather than a true peace-treaty -- and because they must go to war against the Infidel, or press their Jihad against the Infidel in other ways, on the model of the Treaty of al-Hudaibiyya, no Infidel state or people can ever trust a treaty with Muslims.

12) I deplore the speech of former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad, so roundly applauded several years ago, in which he called for the "development" not of human potential, not of art and science, but essentially of weapons technology and the harnessing and encouraging of Muslim "brain power" for the sole purpose of defeating the Infidels, as a reading of that entire speech makes absolutely clear. Here -- would you like me to read it now for the audience?

13) I deplore the fact that Muslims are taught, and clearly many have taken to heart, the idea that they should offer their loyalty only to fellow Muslims, the umma al-islamiyya, and never to Infidels or to the Infidel nation-state to which they have uttered an oath of allegiance -- apparently such an oath must be an act of perjury, because such loyalty is impossible. Am I wrong? Show me exactly what I have misunderstood about Islam.

14) I deplore the ululations of pleasure over acts of terrorism, the delight shown by delighted and celebrating crowds in Cairo, Ramallah, Khartoum, Beirut, Damascus, Baghdad, and of course all over Saudi Arabia, when news of the World Trade Center attacks was known -- and I can, if you wish, supply the reports from those capitals which show this to have taken place. I attribute statements of exultation about the "Infidels" deserving it to the fact that Islamic tenets view the world as a war between the Believers and the Infidels.

15) On that score, I deplore that mad division of the world between Dar al-Islam and dar al-Harb, and the requirement that there be uncompromising hostility between the two until the final triumph of the former, and the permanent subjugation and incorporation into it of the latter.

16) I deplore the sexual inequality and mistreatment of women, which I can show has a clear basis in the canonical Islamic texts, and is not simply, pace Ebadi and other quasi-"reformers," a "cultural" matter.

17) I deplore the fact that Infidels feel, with justice, unsafe in almost every Muslim country, but that Muslims treat the Infidel countries and their inhabitants with disdain, arrogance, and endless demands for them to bend, to change, to what Muslims want -- whether it be to remove crucifixes, or change the laws of laicity in France, or to demand that "hate speech" laws be extended in England so as to prevent any serious and sober criticism of Islam.

18) I deplore the emphasis on the collective, and the hatred for the autonomy of the individual. In particular, I believe that someone born into Islam has a perfect right to leave Islam if he or she chooses -- and that there should be no punishment, much less the murderous punishment so often inflicted.

19) I find the record of Muslim political despotism to be almost complete -- with the exception of those Muslim countries and regimes that have, as Ataturk did, carried out a series of measures to limit and constrain Islam.

20) I deplore the fact that while Muslims claim it is a "universalist" religion, it has been a vehicle for Arab imperialism, causing those conquered and islamized in some cases to forget, or become indifferent or even hostile to, their own pre-Islamic histories. The requirement that the Qur'an be read in Arabic (one of the first things Ataturk did was commission a Turkish Qur'an and tafsir, or commentary), and the belief by many Muslims that the ideal form of society can be derived from the Sunna of 7th century Arabia, and that their own societies are worth little, is an imperialism that goes to culture and to history, and is the worst and most complete kind.

21) I deplore the attacks on ex-Muslims who often must live in fear. I deplore the attacks on Theo van Gogh and others, and the absence of serious debate about the nature of Islam and of its reform -- except as a means to further beguile and distract Infidels who are becoming more wary.

22) I deplore the emptiness of the "Tu Quoque" arguments directed at Christians and Jews, based on a disingenuous quotation of passages -- for example, from Leviticus -- that are completely ignored and have not been invoked for two thousand years, and I deplore the rewriting of history so that a Muslim professor can tell an American university audience that "the Ku Klux Klan used to crucify (!) African-Americans, everyone standing around during the crucifixion singing Christian hymns (!)."

23) I deplore the phony appeals of the "we all share one Abrahamic faith" and "we are the three monotheisms" when, to my mind, a Christian or a Jew has far less to fear from, and in the end far more that is truly essential in common with, any practicing polytheistic Hindu.

24) I deplore the fact that Islam is based on the idea of world-conquest, not of accommodation, and that its adherents do not believe in Western pluralism except insofar as this can be used as an instrument, temporarily most useful, to protect the position of Islam until its adherents have firmly established themselves.

25) I deplore the view, in Islam, that it is not a saving of an individual soul that is involved when one conducts Da'wa or the Call to Islam, but rather, something that appears to be much more like signing someone up for the Army of Islam. He need not have read all the fine print; he need not know Islamic tenets; he need not even have read or know what is in sira and hadith or much of the Qur'an; he need only recite a single sentence. That does not show a deep concern for the nature of the conversion (sorry, "reversion").

26) I deplore the sentiment that "Islam is to dominate and not to be dominated." I deplore the sentiment "War is deception" as uttered by Muhammad. I deplore what has happened over 1350 years in vast swaths of territory formerly filled with Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, Hindus, Buddhists, much of which is now today almost monotonously Islamic. I do not think Islam welcomes any diversity if it means the possibility of full equality for non-Muslims.

27) I deplore the fact that slavery is permitted in Islam, that it is discussed in the Qur'an, and that it was suppressed in 19th century Arabia only through the influence of British naval power in the Gulf; that it was formally done away with in Saudi Arabia only in 1962; that it still exists in Mali, and the Sudan, and even Mauritania; that it may exist in the Arabian interior. Certainly the treatment of the Thai, Filipino, Indian and other female house workers in Arab households amounts to slavery, and it is no accident that there has never been a Muslim William Wilberforce.

I could go on, and am prepared to adduce history, and quotations from the canonical texts. And so are hundreds of thousands of Infidels who have looked into Islam, or in their own countries had a close look at the Muslim populations which have made their own Infidel existences far more unpleasant, expensive, and dangerous than they would otherwise be.

If this is "Islamophobia" -- show me exactly why it is irrational (i.e. not based on facts or observable behavior, or a study of history). Show me why it is an "irrational" dislike or even hatred of Islam. If you cannot show that, then perhaps the word should not be invoked. But if you do invoke it, be prepared to have copious quotations from Qur'an and hadith and sira constantly presented to audiences so that they may judge for themselves, without the "guidance" of apologists for Islam, both Muslim and non-Muslim.

Four centuries of Muslim murder, torture, rape, pillage, and destruction

And when finally Christianity defended itself, it was wrong?

Only in the eyes of Islam (which always blames its victims when they try to defend themselves against it) and in the minds of those Westerners whose suicidal self-loathing causes them to ignore, lie about, or obfuscate the truth regarding Islam (the religion that will convert, subdue, or slaughter them if their own calls for appeasement and "tolerance" win out).

Tragically, though it is the West's Judeo-Christian heritage that will give Men the courage to stand against the subjugation of its own, free peoples, that is the one thing those who despise Western Civilization and Christianity actually hate.

More from Robert Spencer's vital work: The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades), when in 1095, after four hundred years of Islam slaughtering, raping, and enslaving North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, the West answered a desperate call for help:

"From the confines of Jerusalem and from the city of Constantinople a grievous report has gone forth and has repeatedly been brought to our ears; namely, that a race from the kingdom of the Persians, an accursed race, a race wholly alienated from God, "a generation that set not their heart aright and whose spirit was not steadfast with God," violently invaded the lands of those Christians and has depopulated them by pillage and fire. They have led away a part of the captives into their own country, and a part they have killed by cruel tortures. They have either destroyed the churches of God or appropriated them for the rites of their own religion. They destroy the altars, after having defiled them with their uncleanness....

The kingdom of the Greeks is now dismembered by them and has been deprived of territory so vast in extent that it could be traversed in two months' time....

This royal city, however, situated at the center of the earth, is now held captive by the enemies of Christ and is subjected, by those who do not know God, to the worship of the heathen. She seeks, therefore, and desires to be liberated and ceases not to implore you to come to her aid. From you especially she asks succor, because as we have already said, God has conferred upon you above all other nations great glory in arms.

Today very similar circumstances exist: Qur'anic Islam ascends in power, violence, and oppression against Christians, Jews, and other non-Muslims around the world, and Christendom possesses the vastly superior military power necessary to defeat Islam on the battlefield.

The vital points on which history hangs are: will the West recognize the truth about Islam before it is too late, and if so, will it have the moral courage to do what is necessary to defeat once and for all?

He aided Jihad in Europe

An obvious conclusion: President Clinton bombed Christians who were fighting against jihadists.

From The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam, by Robert Spencer:

"In the 1990's, the Balkans became a favored destination for veterans of the jihad wars in Afghanistan and Chechnya. A prominent jihad commander in Bosnia, Abu Abdel Aziz, explained that he went there after meeting with several Islamic authorities in Saudi Arabia. They "all support," he said, "the religious dictum that 'the fighting in Bosnia is a fight to make the word of Allah supreme and protect the chastity of Muslims.' It is because Allah said (in his holy book), 'Yet, if they as you for succor against religious persecution, it is your duty to give [them] this succor.'...It is then our (religious) duty to defend our Muslim brethren wherever they are, as long as they are persecuted because they are Muslims and not for any other reason."

And as for the idea that jihadists are a "minority" of "extremists" bred in the poverty and oppression of the Middle East:

Before, during, and after the 2003 war in Iraq, jihadist streamed into that country from all over the world-including some unexpected places; a German security official noted in late 2003 that "since the end of the war, there has been a large movement of people motivated by Islamic extremism from Germany and the rest of Europe toward Iraq" (Spencer, 128).

How can a terrorist-sympathizer find a place of leadership in the Religion of Peace?

Perhaps because his ideology is consistent with Islam's founder's. From Jihad Watch:

Another example of the fact that there is no dividing line in the Islamic community between peaceful and violent Muslims, and that prominent "moderates" can easily become "radicals": remember that Imam Fawaz Damra was one of the signers of the CAIR-endorsed fatwa against terrorism issued some time ago by the Fiqh Council of North America. Fawaz Damra update from AP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

Federal authorities arrested an Islamic religious leader Friday as they began the process of deporting him for lying about ties to terrorist groups.

Imam Fawaz Damra, the spiritual leader of Ohio's largest mosque, was convicted in June 2004 of concealing ties to three groups that the U.S. government classifies as terrorist organizations when he applied for U.S. citizenship in 1994.

That conviction was upheld in March, clearing the way for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to begin deportation proceedings.

Damra, 44, was arrested early Friday without incident, the immigration office said....

The Palestinian-born Damra, who is the imam, or spiritual leader, at the Islamic Center of Cleveland, immigrated to the United States in the mid-1980s.

In Damra's trial last year, prosecutors showed video footage of Damra and other Islamic leaders raising money for an arm of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which has been listed as a major terrorist group by the State Department since 1989.

Jurors also were shown footage in which Damra called Jews "the sons of monkeys and pigs" during a 1991 speech and said "terrorism and terrorism alone is the path to liberation" in a 1989 speech.

How could this happen?

How was this person able to lead a moderate, tolerant, religious community without their discovering and rejecting his "misunderstanding," his "hijacking" of their "great" religion?

To what extent did he work to instruct his people on their god's commands to fight against, subdue, and kill non-Muslims?

To what degree and with what fervor did his congregation take to heart and desire to put into practice Allah's commands?

How long will it be until Western governments recognize what their citizens are beginning to come to understand--that Islam cannot have "peace" with the West until it is destroyed?

From LGF:

"Federal authorities arrested an Islamic religious leader Friday as they began the process of deporting him for lying about ties to terrorist groups.

Imam Fawaz Damra, the spiritual leader of Ohio’s largest mosque, was convicted in June 2004 of concealing ties to three groups that the U.S. government classifies as terrorist organizations when he applied for U.S. citizenship in 1994. ...

The Palestinian-born Damra, who is the imam, or spiritual leader, at the Islamic Center of Cleveland, immigrated to the United States in the mid-1980s.

In Damra’s trial last year, prosecutors showed video footage of Damra and other Islamic leaders raising money for an arm of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which has been listed as a major terrorist group by the State Department since 1989.

Jurors also were shown footage in which Damra called Jews “the sons of monkeys and pigs” during a 1991 speech and said “terrorism and terrorism alone is the path to liberation” in a 1989 speech."

Whom should you trust?

Given the Qur'an's command for the faithful to wage jihad against unbelievers, and Mohammed's belief and practice that "War is deceit," what relevance does this story from Iraq have for the trustworthiness of those Muslims on whom President Bush and his administration rely regarding Islam (Norquist, CAIR, etc.)?

From Jihad Watch:

The Iraqi authorities say that they have arrested the leaders of three terror networks operating around Baghdad, two of which were headed by an interior ministry official. General Bassem al-Gharawy told the German newsagency DPA that the third network was headed by the manager of a private investment company.

The networks were based in the al-Ghazaliya and al-Jihad to the west of Baghdad. ''The arrests were carried out in a legal manner, the detainees confessed to have carried out robberies, murders and have set off bombs' al-Gharawy said. 'The task of the interior ministry official was to provide weapons, equipment and official documents to facilitate their operations,' he added."

Essential background on the Palestinian "issue"

From Dhimmi Watch: The Israeli-Palestinian conflict in brief

Stand with Israel against Allah: "I will bless those who bless you, and curse those who curse you."

Over the nearly fourteen centuries of violent jihad, one factor that allowed its advance through the Middle East, western and eastern Europe, North Africa, and Asia was that its Infidel targets mounted no unified defense against it.

Rivalries between peoples and kings, grudges, ambition, and a lack of communication saw numerous nations fall to Islam which otherwise may have been able to not only stop, but crush, it.

Today, with our knowledge of history, our ability to communicate instantly, and the military technological advantage we possess, it would take little more than non-Muslim leaders telling the truth about Islam for it to be pushed back to the borders of Muslim lands and constrained until it collapsed under the weight of its own barbarism and ignorance.

Unfortunately, our political, media, and academic elites have been been ignorant cowards.

One by one, ancient lands fell under the sword of Mohammed. Today, the non-Muslim nation closest to being slaughtered to Allah's glory is Israel. Israel may be the main target today, but after they fall, guess who's next?

From Robert Spencer:

Israel stands virtually alone in the world not only because of lingering antisemitism, but because Palestinian Arabs and their allies have succeeded in convincing opinion-makers that their land was taken illegitimately by Israel, and that they are oppressed there. The facts are otherwise, as I have discussed in a previous article here. The state was established legitimately and with the approval of the United Nations, and even the "occupied territories" were obtained according to what have been universally recognized throughout history as the rules of war. (Or should the United States give up the "occupied territories" of California, Texas, and other Western states? Should Russia withdraw from its "occupied territories" in Konigsberg, eastern Finland and eastern Poland? Should Muslims across North Africa, the Middle East, Iran, India and Southeast Asia withdraw from those "occupied territories" back to Arabia?) While I am sympathetic to genuine Palestinian Arab refugees, and with my friends from Ramallah and Jenin, I can't help but notice the role of the neighboring Arab states in exacerbating and prolonging the refugee problem for political reasons that are ultimately rooted in the jihad ideology. I can't help but notice that I was able to visit the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Mount Tabor, and other Christian holy sites in Israel, which mean a great deal to me personally, while Bethlehem, under Palestinian Authority control, has become a dangerous place from which Christians are fleeing as quickly as they can. I can't help but notice that there was no call to establish a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza between 1948 and 1967, when those territories were under Jordanian and Egyptian control respectively -- despite the alleged difference of nationality between Palestinians and Jordanians and Egyptians.

Ultimately, if the nations of the world are interested in defending universal human rights and the equality of dignity of all people, they need to stand with Israel. Misdiagnosis of the problem -- that is, the unwillingness or inability of Western governments to acknowledge the motives and goals of the jihadists who want above all to destroy them -- has largely prevented this.

Yet as Benjamin Franklin said long ago in a far different context, we must all hang together, or we will most assuredly all hang separately.

To Whom we should give thanks

From Joseph Farah: Thankful for what?:

I walked through a public elementary school this week and looked at the Thanksgiving artwork produced by the kids.

These poor kids don't have a clue about the meaning of the holiday. They are being intentionally deceived about its origins. They are not even given a hint as to the spiritual nature of the historical event.

That's not separation of church and state. That's separation of education from reality.

There's a rich tradition for this holiday that dates back, not just through American history, but thousands of years through the history of the Hebrew people.

It's true. That's where the Pilgrims got the idea for the feast – from the Bible.

I count 28 references to the word thanksgiving in the King James Bible – all but six in the Old Testament. For the ancient children of Israel, thanksgiving was a time of feasting and fasting, of praising God, of singing songs. It was a rich celebration – and still is for observant Jews today.

William Bradford, the leader of the Pilgrims, studied the Hebrew scriptures. The Pilgrims took them very seriously. The idea of giving thanks to God with a feast was inspired by that knowledge of the Bible. In a very real way, the Pilgrims saw themselves, too, as chosen people of God being led to a Promised Land.

At the table, they acknowledged "God's good providence" and "blessed the God of Heaven who brought us over the furious ocean." For "what could sustain us but the Spirit of God and His grace?" asked Bradford. He then quoted Moses, "Our fathers cried unto Him and He heard their voice and looked on their adversity" (Deuteronomy 26:7).

In addition to proclaiming a day of thanksgiving, like the ancient Hebrews did before them, Bradford and his flock also praised God's loving kindness, the famous refrain of Psalms 106 and 107 and Jewish liturgy ("Give thanks to the Lord for He is good, for His kindness endures forever").

The "thanksgiving" idea took different forms in colonial America. It wasn't until George Washington, the republic's first president, proclaimed Nov. 26, 1789, as a day for thanking God for bringing America through its trials, that an official holiday was marked.

Washington, too, was a student of the Hebrew scriptures. He believed with all his heart that America would be blessed only if it acknowledged the source of all blessings.

Here's what he proclaimed Oct. 3, 1789:

Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly implore His protection and favor; and whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me to recommend to the people of the United States a day of Public Thanksgiving and Prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.

Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the twenty-six of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that Great and Glorious Being, who is the Beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country, previous to their becoming a nation; for the single manifold mercies, and the favorable interposition's of His providence, in the courage and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish Constitutions of Government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now instituted; for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

And also, that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the Great Lord and Ruler of Nations, and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private institutions, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discretely and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us) and to bless them with good governments, peace and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science, among them and us; and generally, to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.

(By the way, some revisionist historians have tried to suggest Washington was not a Christian, but a deist. You need only read this one proclamation to put to rest such fanciful ideas.)

Later, in 1863, with the nation torn asunder by the War Between the States, Lincoln re-instituted the tradition for two years. Again, in 1941, with a global war threatening, Congress established the fourth Thursday of November as the day for Americans to thank God.

That's right – I said to thank God.

That's what it is all about. That's what it has always been about. It's not about Indians. It's not about turkey. It's not about squash or sweet potatoes or pumpkin pie.

It's about celebrating all that God has done for us. And He has surely blessed America for more than 200 years.

Senate adopts 'exit strategy' from reality (and patriotism)

Mark Steyn again gets right to the point:

A busy time in the U.S. Senate, the "world's greatest deliberative body." Judging from the 2006 conference report, the Senate subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education -- Chairman Arlen Specter (R), ranking member Tom Harkin (D) -- has been deliberating especially hard:

"Sec. 221. (a) The Headquarters and Emergency Operations Center Building (Building 21) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is hereby renamed as the Arlen Specter Headquarters and Emergency Operations Center.

(b) The Global Communications Center Building (Building 19) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is hereby renamed as the Thomas R. Harkin Global Communications Center."

Good to see that even in the viciously partisan atmosphere of today's politics, Republicans and Democrats can still work together to carry out the people's business. In the same spirit, I wonder whether the Senate chamber itself should not be renamed the Abu Musab al-Zarqawi United States Senate. With increasingly rare exceptions, just about everything that emerges from the chamber tends to support the Zarqawi view of Iraq -- that this is a psychological war in which the Great Satan is an effete wimp who can be worn down and chased back to his La-Z-Boy recliner in Florida.

Last week, the Republican majority, to their disgrace and with 13 honorable exceptions, passed an amendment calling on the administration to lay out its "plan" for "ending" the war and withdrawing U.S. troops. They effectively signed on to the Democrat framing of the debate: that the only thing that matters is the so-called exit strategy. The only difference between Bill Frist's mushy Republicans and Harry Reid's shameless Democrats is that the latter want to put a firm date on withdrawal, so that Zarqawi's insurgents can schedule an especially big car bomb to coincide with the formal handover of the Great Satan's cojones.

"Exit strategy" is a defeatist's term. The only exit strategy that matters was summed up by George M. Cohan in the song the Doughboys sang as they marched off to the Great War nine decades ago:

"And we won't come back

Till it's over

Over there!"

And that's the timetable, too. If you want it fleshed out a bit, how about this? "The key issue is no longer WMD or even the role of the U.N. The central issue is America's credibility and will to prevail.'' That's Goh Chok Tong speaking in Washington last year. Unfortunately, he's not a U.S. senator, but the prime minister of Singapore, and thus ineligible to run, on the grounds that he's not a citizen of Blowhardistan. What does the Senate's revolting amendment tell America's enemies (Zarqawi) and "friends" (Chirac) about her will to prevail?

Any great power -- never mind the preeminent power of the age -- should be engaged with the world. That means, among other things, that it has a presence in those parts of the globe that are critical to its interest. For two years, the Democrats have assiduously peddled the line that Bush "lied" about Iraq. A slightly less contemptible class of critic has sneered that the administration never had any plans for postwar Iraq, hadn't a clue what it was getting into, couldn't tell the difference between a Sunni and a Shia and a Kurd if they were painted different colors and had neon signs flashing off the top of their heads. If there's anything to this feeble second-guessing, it's that the U.S. government simply didn't know enough about Iraq -- and, in a crude sense, they're right. U.S. taxpayers would be justified, for example, in feeling they're not getting their $44 billion worth from the intelligence community.

But the only way to know the country is to be there on the ground, in some form or other. I'm all for "Iraqification" -- though those Democrats urgently demanding everything be done by the locals will be the first to shriek in horror once the Iraqis start serious score-settling with the foreign insurgents. But, even with full-scale Iraqification, America would be grossly irresponsible if not clinically insane not to maintain some sort of small residual military presence somewhere in the western desert.

Sorry, but that's part of the deal of being the world's hyperpower. To pretend otherwise is an exit strategy from reality. If you're worried about the ''cost,'' stop garrisoning your wealthiest allies -- Germany, Japan et al. -- and thereby absolving them from stepping up to the traditional responsibilities of nationhood.

One expects nothing from the Democrats. Their leaders are men like Jay Rockefeller, Democrat of West Virginia, who in 2002 voted for the war and denounced Saddam Hussein as an "imminent threat" and claimed that Iraq could have nuclear weapons by 2007 if not earlier. Now he says it's Bush who "lied" his way into war with a lot of scary mumbo-jumbo about WMD.

What does Rockefeller believe, really? I know what Bush believes: He thought Saddam should go in 2002 and today he's glad he's gone, as am I. I know what, say, Michael Moore believes: He wanted to leave Saddam in power in 2002, and today he thinks the "insurgents" are the Iraqi version of America's Minutemen. But what do Rockefeller and Reid and Kerry believe deep down? That voting for the war seemed the politically expedient thing to do in 2002 but that they've since done the math and figured that pandering to the moveon.org crowd is where the big bucks are? If Bush is the new Hitler, these small hollow men are the equivalent of those grubby little Nazis whose whining defense was, "I was only obeying orders. I didn't really mean all that strutting tough-guy stuff." And, before they huff, "How dare you question my patriotism?", well, yes, I am questioning your patriotism -- because you're failing to meet the challenge of the times. Thanks to you, Iraq is a quagmire -- not in the Sunni Triangle, where U.S. armed forces are confident and effective, but on the home front, where soft-spined national legislators have turned the war into one almighty Linguini Triangle.

It's easy to laugh at the empty shell of a Jay Rockefeller, bragging about how he schmoozed Bashar Assad, dictator of a terrorist state, about Bush's war intentions. But look at the news from France and ask yourself what that's really about? At heart, it's the failure of Europe's political class to grasp the profound and rapid changes already under way. This Senate is making the same fatal error. I'd advocate throwing the bums out if there were any alternative bums to throw in. But maybe the Thomas R. Harkin Centers for Disease Control could persuade them to be the first deliberative body to donate itself to medical science.

Darwinism, the real "phony theory"

LGF posted two blurbs defending "science" from the "superstitious," first from Charles Krauthammer (usually exceptional on items of national interest) and then from the Vatican

In Krauthammer's "Phony Theory, False Conflict" he writes:

Let’s be clear. Intelligent design may be interesting as theology, but as science it is a fraud. It is a self-enclosed, tautological “theory” whose only holding is that when there are gaps in some area of scientific knowledge — in this case, evolution — they are to be filled by God.

As far as I have heard, Intelligent Design does two things: it points out flaws with Neo-Darwinian Evolutionary Theory and offers as an alternative to the ascientific concepts of abiogenesis and macroevolution the quite reasonable suggestion that the obvious purpose, design, and complexity of Life must be due to an Intellect.

Whatever definition of ID one uses, the real "phony theory" is Darwinism. Here's why:

Science is a way of knowing. It depends on strict adherence to certain principles for it to be useful at all. Real Science requires that a phenomenon be observable, measurable, testable, and that whatever truth claims one makes must be verified using repeated applications of the Scientific Method.

Unfortunately, Darwinists use the word "Science" to mean atheistic naturalism, and they use it to dismiss as "backwards", "medieval", or "superstitious" anyone who dares to criticize their philosophy.

A Designer greater than and outside Nature is beyond Man's ability to study in a laboratory, and since no human being was around to observe the Origins of the Species, both the idea of a hyper-intelligent Designer and Darwinism's abiogenesis/macroevolution are extra-scientific; they are beyond the bounds of what Science can know.

Since Science can tell us nothing of Beginnings, it is Darwinism that is intellectually dishonest. Is is the fraud. It claims to be Science when in fact it is not only without empirical support for anything beyond microevolution (such random, minor, genetic mutations usually devastate or kill an organism), much of what is scientifically-verifiable contradicts it.

So, a challenge for the Darwinists: Apart from the random, minor, genetic mutations that occur within an organism (which have never been observed to result in newer, more complex genetic program, stucture, or function) what is actually, scientifically, empirically true about Darwinism?

It is a “theory” that admits that evolution and natural selection explain such things as the development of drug resistance in bacteria and other such evolutionary changes within species [emphasis mine] but also says that every once in a while God steps into this world of constant and accumulating change and says, “I think I’ll make me a lemur today.” A “theory” that violates the most basic requirement of anything pretending to be science — that it be empirically disprovable. How does one empirically disprove the proposition that God was behind the lemur, or evolution — or behind the motion of the tides or the “strong force” that holds the atom together?

Here Krauthammer gets one right. Genetic mutations can result (when the organism survives) in changes within species. It does not result in newer, more complex, different kinds of animals. There is no empirical evidence demonstrating the massive number of transitional forms even Darwin admitted necessary to substantiating his explanation for Origins.

Krauthammer also hints at the fatal flaw of Darwinism: its theory of Origins is not only without empirical evidence for gradual transitional forms, it is contradicted by a growing body of scientific knowledge and human experience.

In order to justify the farce that intelligent design is science, Kansas had to corrupt the very definition of science, dropping the phrase “ natural explanations for what we observe in the world around us,” thus unmistakably implying — by fiat of definition, no less — that the supernatural is an integral part of science. This is an insult both to religion and science.

For Science to actually be Science, it must deal with that which is observable, testable, and verifiable. Since it cannot observe, test, or verify anything with regard to what occurred in the ancient past, but only with regard to what is happening now, Darwinism's Origins cannot be Science.

The school board thinks it is indicting evolution by branding it an “unguided process” with no “discernible direction or goal.” This is as ridiculous as indicting Newtonian mechanics for positing an “unguided process” by which Earth is pulled around the sun every year without discernible purpose. What is chemistry if not an “unguided process” of molecular interactions without “purpose”? Or are we to teach children that God is behind every hydrogen atom in electrolysis?

How does Krauthammer know that there is nothing (or no One) sustaining all things in Nature? Is he omniscient? Of course not, for that would make him God, Whom he seems so determined to discredit.

He may be, of course. But that discussion is the province of religion, not science.

That's better.

For the same reason the workings of God in Nature cannot belong to Science (no man can observe, test, and verify them), Darwin's explanations of the Origin(s) of Life and the Species must also be excluded from its realm.

The relentless attempt to confuse the two by teaching warmed-over creationism as science can only bring ridicule to religion, gratuitously discrediting a great human endeavor and our deepest source of wisdom precisely about those questions — arguably, the most important questions in life — that lie beyond the material.

If the Creation account in Genesis is false, then the God Who claimed to speak and it was so is a liar. In that case, all His morality is a fiction and should be discarded. This is why those who believe in an omnipotent, benevolent Creator must oppose Darwinism's anti-scientific elements.

It also why Darwinists must do everything they can to sustain their false worldview.

-------------------------------------

Posted with Krauthammer's contemptous anti-Christian contrivance:

VATICAN CITY, Nov. 18, 2005 (The Canadian Press delivered by Newstex) — The Vatican’s chief astronomer said Friday that “intelligent design” isn’t science and doesn’t belong in science classrooms, the latest high-ranking Roman Catholic official to enter the evolution debate in the United States.

That is fine. At least tell the truth about Darwinism's utter uselessness in accounting for the Origins of the Species.

Rev. George Coyne, the Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory, said placing intelligent design theory alongside that of evolution in school programs was “wrong” and was akin to mixing apples and oranges.

If you try to separate religion and science, and science is defined in terms of what is rational, provable, and true, then what does that make religion? By conceding that false dichotomy, the battle is already lost.

-------------------------------------

Following are responses to some of the reader comments on the article.

#10 TMF 11/20/2005 08:28AM PST wrote:

Lets stop creating false dichotomys.

Science is science. Evolution is science, despite the presence of well known gaps and flaws in the theory, it has largely been proven, with evidence in the fossil record.

This is not true. Darwin expected the fossil record to support his ideas, and he admitted that without numerous transitional forms his theory was dead. Unfortunately for him, he didn't anticipate the fanaticism of the atheistic naturalists and their willingness to fabricate and fictionalize.

That said, any self proclaimed secularist/materialist who believes that the march of consciousness from subatomic particles through amino acids through protozoa through plants and animals, all the way up to the miracles of human accomplishment was the mere result of logarithmic probabilities or whatever Daniel Dennett is claiming these days, certainly push the enevlope of credulity.

Well said.

-------------------------------------

#11 FrogMarch 11/20/2005 08:28AM PST wrote:

The thing is - one can believe in GOD and evolution.

Scientists do it all the time.

I agree with Krauthammer on this.

Certain gods can be believed along with Darwinism, but not the God of Israel. He says He made everything perfect and it was very good. Christ referred to Genesis as literal.

Evolutionists believe Life formed through a process of chance, bitter agony, and death.

There can be no compromise; the two ideas are completely irreconcilable.

-------------------------------------

#13 ibrodsky 11/20/2005 08:30AM PST wrote:

Krauthammer is wrong on this. Intelligent design does not equal creationism. There are a number of facts that don't seem to jive with evolution. For example, could an eye evolve? If so, from what? And why do even the simplest organisms have the same sophisticated genetic machinery that humans do?

That's called Irreducible Complexity, and it is a powerful scientific (that means empirical, verifiable) argument disproving Darwinism's explanation for Origins.

Additionally, the design and complexity of a human cell argues powerfully against the Chance + Time + Matter + Energy formula of the Evolutionists and for the idea that Omniscience created Life.

A human cell is a Von Neumann-type metabolic machine. It monitors, repairs, and replicates itself according to its genetic program, a program so complex that (according to one Darwinist) its code if printed on paper would be enough to fill hundreds of volumes of 500-page books (small font, no pictures).

No rational human being (don't Darwinists consider themselves supremely rational, especially when compared to the hopelessly backwards religious-types?) would ever assert that the computer on which you are reading this post spontaneously arose due only to the random interactions of the matter of which it is composed, time, and energy. Yet that is what the Darwinists would coerce all others to accept regarding Life.

As someone who is largely sympathetic with evolution and a fan of Darwin, I must note that today many evolutionists have become the non-thinking ideologues they have long accused their critics of being. There are legitimate questions about whether design has played a role in the development of life. Evolutionists tend to dismiss these questions. But when dealing with something about which we have only the most primitive knowledge, it's unwise to rule out theories just because you don't like the political or religious implications.

Which is the reason Darwinism is so staunchly defended by the true believers, and those who disagree are (usually) so vehemently attacked.

-------------------------------------

#15 mich-again 11/20/2005 08:30AM PST wrote:

I don't have the blind faith it takes to be atheist and go along with the absolutely crazy notion that DNA just appeared one day in the primordial soup. That notion is just as ridiculous as the story from Genesis of Noah gathering all the animal species on Earth to save them from the great flood on his ark.

When, in the history of Man, has anyone observed a program arising apart from a Programmer (or one of His programs)? Never. All scientific evidence, all human experience, shows that Life only arises from Life and Life's programs.

(By the way, the Noah account does not say "species"; that is a scientific term not-yet-coined at the time the events it describes took place.)

-------------------------------------

#16 Killgore Trout 11/20/2005 08:30AM PST wrote:

I find it embarrassing that creationism is making a comeback in this country. It does not bode well for our future to create a generation of scientifically illiterate children. You can belive in creationism if you want to, just keep it out of science classes.

I would prefer real Science be taught, which would mean real Critical Thinking and analysis, not Darwinism.

-------------------------------------

#19 MJ 11/20/2005 08:32AM PST wrote:

You're kidding, right? By that logic, a predominately Muslim school board can "have their first amendment right include" a course called "Jihad has a moral obligation" in their curricula "if they want to". Sorry, but Majorities do not have the right to impose their religious beliefs on minorities in this country.

But real scientific truth should be taught, not someone's unsubstantiated atheistic fantasy.

-------------------------------------

#23 Spiny Norman 11/20/2005 08:35AM PST wrote:

No, they don't. They merely point out the obvious, that religion is by definition unscientific. They do not say believers are stupid.

By definition, religion is not science. That does not mean it is void of scientific truth or contrary to Science. I would argue that when Science does its job and refrains from venturing into the realm of that which it is unable to examine, there is great harmony between Genesis and Science.

(Darwinists do often say religious people are stupid, either explicitly or by the implication of accepting what naturalists define as "unscientific", as this author just did).

-------------------------------------

#27 BPP 11/20/2005 08:38AM PST wrote:

No one ever said that believing in evolution (which is NOT, by the way, "a series of happy accidents") is easier than believing in ID. On the contrary, believing in the supernatural is always easier, as it does not require the rigor that science requires to be believable. That is why ID or creationism has been what most people believe for most of human history.

What is unbelievable is that anyone would try to equate rigor with Darwinism and exclude from it religion (at least Christianity).

It does not take "rigor" to make up stories originally without any real scientific foundation, as Darwin did in the nineteenth century, and then to--in spite of the accumulating scientific evidence against it--adhere to the bankrupt ideology at all costs.

"Obtuseness" perhaps, but I wouldn't call it "rigor."

(And this author's chrono-centrism is pretty outlandish also. A people's living in an earlier time doesn't mean their reason or intellect are inferior to more recent people, just their technology).

And this is the point. If we teach ID as part of the science curriculum and in so doing, water down the definition of science, then what we are really doing is destroying the ability of children to think like scientists.

To believe Darwinism in light of what is known to be true, one must water down the definition of Science. Believing what is contrary to reason unavoidably destroys the ability of children to think as a scientist should.

And thinking like a scientist is hard. Scientists formulate theories based on evidence and then test those theories with experiments that yield more evidence. A theory must be supported by evidence to remain viable and must be rejected if such evidence does not exist. It is that evidence-based thought process, more than anything else, that is responsible for the progress and wealth that we in the West enjoy. To destroy that thought process, or to belittle it, is to jeopardize the very foundation of the glory of our civilization.

And tragically, all of these truths are violated for an atheistic, naturalistic philosophy.

-------------------------------------

#40 Condor 11/20/2005 08:48AM PST observed:

New ideas that challenge the existing concepts never have an easy road.

The germ theory was ridiculed when first proposed; everyone in medical science knew that disease was caused by an imbalance in the humors; and that bleeding was the best treatment around. Pasteur was ridiculed for teaching about "little beasties" that inhabited our bodies.

Bleeding had been around as a treatment since Hippocrates, and who was Pasteur to think he was right, when all science was opposed to him?

New ideas are always ridiculed at first; then vehemently opposed; but afterwards, they are always regarded as obvious.

And some false theories die hard.

Darwinism is the last century's Phlogiston.

-------------------------------------

#45 Mentat 11/20/2005 08:51AM PST posted:

Here's the deal. There is no conflict between science and religion as long as the god you believe in doesn't do anything.

...And for those who don't immediately "get" the above quotation, let me spell it out for you - if your god actually intervenes in the workings of the world - i.e. changes the laws of physics, creates earthquakes, starts volcanoes or hurricanes, etc. - then science and religion are definitely in conflict as your god is constantly in there changing the workings of the universe. However, if your god doesn't do anything like the above, science and religion cannot possibly be in conflict.

Which is why there can be no compromise between the God of the Bible and Darwinism's abiogenesis/macroevolution. The former says He did it, the latter says He did not.

Evolutionists wish their story to be true so that there is no God Who watches Man and cares about what we do.

Additionally, Science is not atheistic naturalism; it is a process by which human beings discover and come to understand that which can be observed. It is a discovering of what is, not what might have been.

-------------------------------------

#46 ibrodsky 11/20/2005 08:51AM PST correctly observed:

After more than 100 years of investigation and experimentation, no one has ever shown how one species can evolve into another. Doesn't that make some of you at least admit that evolution is seriously incomplete? Given that, is it wise to rule out alternative theories?

And the fossil record shows the sudden appearance of new forms, not a multitude of numerous transitional forms, as Darwin rightly acknowledged his theory needed.

Our understanding of genetics shows that two simple cells can combine and build a complex organism. Clearly, these simple cells contain a blueprint (design). Why is it considered unscientific to at least wonder if the genetic machinery itself came from a blueprint?

Because to have the fantasy proven false would destroy their worldview. It would be to show the man behind the curtain is only a man.

-------------------------------------

#50 Havoc 11/20/2005 08:54AM PST wrote:

This is terribly amusing.

Why is EVERYONE so threatened by a basic fact?

Complex systems, i.e. it takes five separate systems, each complex in itself, --- operating in Co-ordination for Vision to occur.

No one system has any usefullness in itself, alone, -- cannot be explained has having evolved out of nothing for a separate purpose, then to get Five Separate Systems to evolve together ?

Neither has there ever been a "Mechanism", discovered that change one structure into another.

The finch beaks, false, variation in color a minor camo change in months and birds, the "Artists rendition" of embryo "evolution" proven False, Java Man, a hoax, all proven false, where you ask -- UC Berkeley Dept. Micro Biology.

Even the Guru of unifying theory of Biochem doesn't believe in evolution any longer.

Where's the Science, Where's the provable evolutionary mechanism.

From the goo to the zoo to you ... sounds like blind faith to me....

a religion no less....gasp !

If genetic mutation is such a great thing -- bring on the Nukes.

-------------------------------------

#55 blutonazi98 11/20/2005 08:57AM PST commented:

I believe in ID (in micro and macro level) that being said it should not be taught as science. Anything that has the conclusion already drawn before any scientific testing begins does not follow the scientific method. Therefore it should not be taught as science. Just like evolution at some levels should not be taught as fact when its assumptions are wrong or not testable

And that's the trouble with Darwinism: it takes one minor empirical bit of evidence (that minor, random genetic mutations occur within an organism over time) and from that extrapolates an entire atheistic, naturalistic worldview.

It creates a fiction about extant matter (without explaining how it came to exist), time, energy, and randomness (the antithesis of design) interacting to form the most complex machines known to Man--himself.

No rational, clear-thinking person would claim that a supercomputer naturally and spontaneously arose from only its constituent matter apart from an intellect, yet that is what Darwinists want humanity to believe.

Not only is this nonsense, it is more than counterintuitive--it contradicts all the relevant evidence. Without the ability to observe, test, and repeat such observations and testing, there is no Science. In the case of Darwinian abiogenesis/macroevolution, you've got not Science, but science fiction.

-------------------------------------

#60 Gambisin 11/20/2005 09:01AM PST

The longer I spent as a scientist, the more deeply I found myself believing in God, the more glorious He seemed.

Science is about NOTHING more than empirical fact, about avoiding anything based on faith.

Science is SUPPOSED to be limited to ONLY what we mere mortals can prove. Science is the mechanics of experimentation. God is far bigger than that and belongs in the places where math and test tubes aren't needed.

So far, so good. Science cannot address that which is beyond its sphere of observation.

I agree with Krauthammer and the Vatican.

Oh well.

Public schools are for learning the empirical. Faith and THE Designer, were things I always wanted my children to learn from me and the Church.
God belongs in religion and philosophy class, not science.

The problem is that abiogenesis and macroevolution--the elements of Darwinism that contradict the God of the Bible--are not empirical. They are suppositions uncritically accepted by Darwinists in face of contradictory evidence.

And God is a God of history, not philosophy.

Iran (not North Korea) threat to U.S. like Nazi Germany

Yes, Kim Jong-Il is a threat. Communist China is a threat. But Islam with the will and means to wage Jihad is actually at war with us now. (Regardless, why try to change the subject, unless you're defending Islam?)

It is Islam that commands the fighting against, subduing, and killing of non-Muslims. It is Iran that has taken up the cause of Allah. It is Iran that longs for the worldwide dominance of Sharia (the absolute rule of Islamic law). It is Iran that has clearly stated its desire for "Death to America!" and is developing its nuclear capability. It is Iran that has sponsored terrorism beyond its borders.

From WND.com:

The threat posed to the national security of the United States by Iran was likened only to the one posed by Nazi Germany in the 1930s, by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who suggested Tehran could be planning for a pre-emptive nuclear electromagnetic pulse attack on America that would turn a third or more of the country "back to a 19th century level of development."

Gingrich made the stunning statements, which echo warning of other congressional leaders and national security experts, in testimony before a subcommittee of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee last week.

He said the "extraordinary challenge that the current regime in Iran poses to the safety of the United States" requires "extraordinary measures to meet it."

"Not since the failure of the League of Nations in the 1930s to confront the aggression of the dictatorships in Japan, Italy and Germany have we seen the willful avoidance of reality which is now underway with regard to Iran," said Gingrich. "There are lessons to be learned from the 1930s and those lessons apply directly to the current government of Iran."

Gingrich pointed with alarm at a report first published in G2 Bulletin that Iran had tested the firing of ballistic missiles from a merchant ship in which warheads were detonated in midair over the Caspian Sea rather than at a land or sea target. National security experts and scientists commissioned by Congress to study the threat of electromagnetic pulse attacks on the U.S. concluded that Iran was preparing for just such a scenario. So does Gingrich.

"In short, a country with a track record of carrying out its murderous ideology may soon have the capability to deliver on its publicly declared and unambiguously stated intentions to inflict mortal harm on the United States on a massive scale," warned Gingrich last Tuesday at the hearing of the Federal Financial Management, Government Information and International Security Subcommittee chaired by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla. "A nuclear tipped intermediate-range Iranian missile launched from a merchant ship off the coast of the United States could do just that. That, or Iran could simply supply its terrorist handmaidens with a small scale nuclear device to use against U.S. targets here at home or abroad."

The threat is compounded by recent disclosures by the International Atomic Energy Agency that Iran is in "non-compliance" with its treaty obligations against developing nuclear weapons.

Gingrich concluded that:

* Iran is the most dangerous regime in the world and the "single most urgent threat to American national security."

* The threat can only be understood in the context of "The Long War Against the Irreconcilable Wing of Islam, which is a worldwide war in which the United States and its allies are unavoidably engaged, and in which the U.S. has active campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan."

* The U.S. cannot be held hostage or rendered impotent by delays of international bureaucracies in dealing with the threat posed by Iran.

* One key to preventing or degrading the Iranian nuclear threat is persuading Russia to stop helping Tehran.

* The U.S. has no option but to seek regime change in Iran.

Gingrich said there are reasons to believe Iran "is testing the capability to launch a surprise attack on the United States from a merchant ship of our coasts."

"An attack by a single Iranian nuclear missile could have a catastrophic impact on the United States by causing an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) over a portion of the country," he said. "Such an attack could quickly turn a third or more of the United States back to a 19th century level of development. Electrical transformers and switching stations would fall. Without electricity, hospitals would fails, water and sewage services would fail, gas stations would be unable to provide petroleum, trucks would not be able to distribute food supplies, and essential services would rapidly disintegrate."

Gingrich said "this is not idle speculation, but taken from the consensus findings of nine distinguished scientists who authored the Report of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack, which was delivered to the Congress on June 22, 2004, the same day the 9-11 commission report was published."

Gingrich pointed out that such a sneak attack – especially if launched from a merchant ship at sea – could have the added benefit of deniability by Iran.

"Contemplating an EMP threat makes more troubling reports that certain Iranian missile tests resulted in missiles that have detonated in flight at or near apogee, which the Iranian press has reported as successful events," explained Gingrich. "Normally, it would be expected that the ability to target specific locations would be the standard for success for ballistic tests. However, if the ability to launch an EMP attack was being tested, detonation at apogee would be the measure of testing success. As noted by the EMP commission, a country with limited nuclear capabilities and few choices as to delivery platforms has only a few options to deliver a deadly blow. An EMP attack would be on such strategy."

Today, Iranian lawmakers approved a bill requiring the government to block inspections of atomic facilities if the International Atomic Energy Agency refers Iran to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions.

When the bill becomes law, it will strengthen the government's hand in resisting international pressure to permanently abandon uranium enrichment, a process that can produce fuel for either nuclear reactors or nuclear bombs.

Iran resumed uranium-reprocessing activities a step before enrichment at its Isfahan Uranium Conversion Facility in August.

Last week, WND and G2 Bulletin reported most of the U.S. civilian population, military bases and nuclear-weapons assembly plants are within range of missile attacks by terrorists or rogue nations using merchant ships as launching platforms – an increasing concern by counter-terrorism and national security experts.

G2 Bulletin and WND first reported the shocking findings of the U.S. EMP commission that rogue nations, such as Iran and North Korea, have the capability of launching an undetected, catastrophic EMP attack on the U.S. – and are actively developing plans.

"These electromagnetic pulses propagate from the burst point of the nuclear weapon to the line of sight on the Earth's horizon, potentially covering a vast geographic region in doing so simultaneously, moreover, at the speed of light," said Dr. Lowell Wood, acting chairman of the commission appointed by Congress to study the threat. "For example, a nuclear weapon detonated at an altitude of 400 kilometers over the central United States would cover, with its primary electromagnetic pulse, the entire continent of the United States and parts of Canada and Mexico."

The commission, in its work over a period of several years, found that EMP is one of a small number of threats that has the potential to hold American society seriously at risk and that might also result in the defeat of U.S. military forces.

"The electromagnetic field pulses produced by weapons designed and deployed with the intent to produce EMP have a high likelihood of damaging electrical power systems, electronics and information systems upon which any reasonably advanced society, most specifically including our own, depend vitally," Wood said. "Their effects on systems and infrastructures dependent on electricity and electronics could be sufficiently ruinous as to qualify as catastrophic to the American nation."

The commission concluded in its report to Congress earlier this year: "EMP is one of a small number of threats that may hold at risk the continued existence of today's U.S. civil society.''

Liberal elite desire power at all costs

Military fears critics will hurt morale:

Pentagon officials say they are increasingly worried that Washington's political fight over the Iraq war will dampen what has been high morale among troops fighting a tenacious and deadly enemy.

Commanders are telling Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld that ground troops do not understand the generally negative press that their missions receive, despite what they consider significant achievements in rebuilding Iraq and instilling democracy.

The commanders also worry about the public's declining support for the mission and what may be a growing movement inside the Democratic Party to advocate troop withdrawal from Iraq.

'They say morale is very high,' said a senior Pentagon official of reports filed by commanders with Washington. 'But they relate comments from troops asking, 'What the heck is going on back here' and why America isn't seeing the progress they are making or appreciating the mission the way those on the ground there do. My take is that they are wondering if America is still behind them.'

The problem is that the pro-Democratic, anti-America, anti-Christian political and media elite are so desperate for power that they will do anything to regain it, even if it results in harm to America's best and--in the long-run--the nation's demise.

With patriots like these, who needs insurgents?

What CAIR doesn't want you to know (and how they try to prevent you from knowing it)

The Council on American-Islamic Relations has issued a press release trying to intimidate and defame Robert Spencer, director of Jihad Watch and someone who has always been decent and fair in evaluating Islam.

Following are my comments on CAIR's deceit.

It should be obvious from their press release that CAIR loves irony:

"The Washington-based council said the growing level of Islamophobic rhetoric in American society prompts some individuals to turn their hate-filled views into violent actions."

(Like in France? Israel? Madrid? Denmark? Sudan? Indonesia? London? Bali...?)

Does CAIR mean that the faithful will (again) use demonstrably-true factual statements about Islam and its (false) prophet as a justification for (more) violence against infidels?

"Just yesterday, CAIR urged a Los Angeles synagogue that hosted a speech by Robert Spencer, the operator of a virulently anti- Muslim website..."

So, telling the truth to non-Muslims about Islam's "sacred" texts, theology, jurisprudence, and history is "anti-Muslim"?

Someone ought to tell Allah!

"...to offer its congregation a more balanced perspective on Islam."

So, CAIR rejects the Qur'an's commands to "...kill the unbelievers wherever you find them," and, "Fight against the People of the Book [Jews and Christians] until they feel themselves subdued and pay the jizya"?

Now that would be a revelation ! (In reality, they consider "balanced" a euphemism for "false")

"Comments and articles on Spencer's site, which is used as reference by a number of Islamophobic commentators, compare Muslims to animals and Nazis ..."

Interestingly, it was Hitler's mufti, not his pope, who aided and encouraged the slaughter of millions of Jews.

"and portray Islam as an inherently violent faith that must be confronted."

Since CAIR can't (truthfully) deny the first half of that statement, it must be the "confronting" to which they object!

"New comments on that site today include "death to islam (sic)," "islam must be destroyed..destroy islam (sic)," "ISLAM = DEADLY PARASITE," and "Islam IS the NAZISM of our generation."

Let's see...

-an ideology that requires purifying its people by destroying the impure? Check!

-the use of force to subdue or destroy those who fail to embrace the ideology? Check!

-special vehemence and violence (even genocide) reserved for the people of Israel? Double Check!

It would appear Islam has been the Nazism of the last one and one-half millennia.

Certainly, no decent person would advocate murdering innocents, unless of course the "decent" person were Mohammed (or one of his followers) and the "innocents" non-Muslims (who can never be truly innocent, since they oppose Allah).

Only two groups of people can deny the essential hatred and violence of Islam: those ignorant of Qur'anic Islam's doctrine and practice over the last fourteen centuries, and those who would keep them ignorant for Islam's advantage.

The Justice of God

A holy and just God will punish sin.

This is bad news for us sinners, since we break the commandments of God by our thoughts, words, and deeds every day of our lives. We justly deserve God's wrath.

Thankfully, God has a justice for us we wouldn't expect. It is the justice, or righteousness, that comes by faith alone in Christ alone, Who is our Righteousness.

Following is an account of how one Roman Catholic monk, Martin Luther, discovered this wonderful justice...

[Translator's Note: ...The terms "just, justice, justify" in the following reading are synonymous with the terms "righteous, righteousness, make righteous." Both sets of English words are common translations of the Latin "justus" and related words. A similar situation exists with the word "faith"; it is synonymous with "belief." Both words can be used to translate Latin "fides." Thus, "We are justified by faith" translates the same original Latin sentence as does "We are made righteous by belief."]

Meanwhile in that same year, 1519, I had begun interpreting the Psalms once again. I felt confident that I was now more experienced, since I had dealt in university courses with St. Paul's Letters to the Romans, to the Galatians, and the Letter to the Hebrews. I had conceived a burning desire to understand what Paul meant in his Letter to the Romans, but thus far there had stood in my way, not the cold blood around my heart, but that one word which is in chapter one: "The justice of God is revealed in it." I hated that word, "justice of God," which, by the use and custom of all my teachers, I had been taught to understand philosophically as referring to formal or active justice, as they call it, i.e., that justice by which God is just and by which he punishes sinners and the unjust.

But I, blameless monk that I was, felt that before God I was a sinner with an extremely troubled conscience. I couldn't be sure that God was appeased by my satisfaction. I did not love, no, rather I hated the just God who punishes sinners. In silence, if I did not blaspheme, then certainly I grumbled vehemently and got angry at God. I said, "Isn't it enough that we miserable sinners, lost for all eternity because of original sin, are oppressed by every kind of calamity through the Ten Commandments? Why does God heap sorrow upon sorrow through the Gospel and through the Gospel threaten us with his justice and his wrath?" This was how I was raging with wild and disturbed conscience. I constantly badgered St. Paul about that spot in Romans 1 and anxiously wanted to know what he meant.

I meditated night and day on those words until at last, by the mercy of God, I paid attention to their context: "The justice of God is revealed in it, as it is written: 'The just person lives by faith.'" I began to understand that in this verse the justice of God is that by which the just person lives by a gift of God, that is by faith. I began to understand that this verse means that the justice of God is revealed through the Gospel, but it is a passive justice, i.e. that by which the merciful God justifies us by faith, as it is written: "The just person lives by faith." All at once I felt that I had been born again and entered into paradise itself through open gates. Immediately I saw the whole of Scripture in a different light. I ran through the Scriptures from memory and found that other terms had analogous meanings, e.g., the work of God, that is, what God works in us; the power of God, by which he makes us powerful; the wisdom of God, by which he makes us wise; the strength of God, the salvation of God, the glory of God.

I exalted this sweetest word of mine, "the justice of God," with as much love as before I had hated it with hate. This phrase of Paul was for me the very gate of paradise. Afterward I read Augustine's "On the Spirit and the Letter," in which I found what I had not dared hope for. I discovered that he too interpreted "the justice of God" in a similar way, namely, as that with which God clothes us when he justifies us. Although Augustine had said it imperfectly and did not explain in detail how God imputes justice to us, still it pleased me that he taught the justice of God by which we are justified.

From Project Wittenberg

Originally posted July 30th.

And what they don't know can kill us

From Hugh Fitzgerald. What they don't know at the State Department:

The Ur-source of the problem with American policy in Iraq is not that the government has been too bold, but too timid, afraid even synecdochically to allude to Islam, insistent on parroting until no one of any sense can stand it, that silly phrase about a 'war on terrorism' with no hint, no hint of a hint, that 'terrorism' is merely one instrument of Jihad, that 'Jihad' means a struggle, and that all over the world this duty of Jihad to spread Islam, as old as Islam itself, is being pursued in various ways of which terrorism is only one, and not even necessarily the most effective.

The American government, or many people in it, failed to understand two things when they went to Iraq. They failed to understand the history of Iraq itself, with its long-standing ethnic and sectarian divisions that in the case of the Sunni-Shi'a split go back to the fourth of the rightly-guided caliphs, a split that in the history of modern Iraq only widened, rather than narrowed, since the days of Sir Percy Cox and Gertrude Bell. They failed to understand that the Kurds were hot for independence, and that a Kurdish state might usefully be exploited in order to raise the consciousness of non-Arab Muslims everywhere, beginning with the Berbers of North Africa (subjected not to the mass murder that the Kurds endured under Saddam Hussein, but rather to Arab cultural and linguistic imperialism). Paralyzing fear of Turkey, perhaps, or a belief that Turkey could still be described (as Richard Perle did in an interview in 2004) as 'secular' as if Kemalism were permanent, Islam transitory -- instead of, as we all now know, the reverse.

And there was just one other little thing, one other intelligence failure, that characterizes the American effort in Iraq, and the madness of the effort to create out of these three vilayets a moderate, rational, democratic nation-state that will prove a Light Unto the Muslim Nations. And that other little thing was Islam. There was not in 2001 an understanding of Islam; there was not such an understanding in the spring of 2003, when three American divisions in a few weeks conquered Iraq; there appears to be no such understanding now, at the top, of the nature of Islam, or why, for example, the campaign of Da'wa, and demographic conquest of Western Europe, is far more important a matter to address, and think of ways to reverse, than whether or not the Sunni lion can lie down with the Shi'a -- well, not exactly lamb, but lioness.

Two readings

Justification and Rome, by Preuf
Captivation of the Will, by Gerhard O. Forde, Baker

Never forget

From Michelle Malkin:

"On this fourth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on America, let's remember...."

Who needs Netflix when you've got the Religion of Peace?

From WND.com:

"Only a few years ago, Adam Gadahn was a southern California teenager with interests in the environment and heavy metal music.

His family says he converted to Islam at an Orange County mosque. There, officials say, Gadahn came under the influence of militants who took him to Pakistan.

He has since emerged as an al Qaeda propaganda tool. His latest message warns Americans an attack is imminent unless the United States stops its operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

'We love peace, but when the enemy violates that peace or prevents us from achieving it, then we love nothing better than the heat of battle, the echo of explosion, and the slitting of the throats of the infidels,' the tape says.

As for the rest of the tape, the young man attempts to dispel any rumors or reports of bin Laden being deceased. He closes his tape by invoking the names of the Sept. 11 hijackers.

'Everyone of us is Mohammed Atta,' he says."

How can converting to the Religion of Peace result in someone delighting at the prospect of slitting unbelievers' throats? There's no causal relationship, you say? Perhaps you haven't read Qur'an 47:4.

The fiends in the MSM

From Little Green Footballs:

The mainstream media immediately imposed a ban on graphic images from the September 11 attacks, but now they demand to be allowed to film dead hurricane victims: US drops banning media from body hunt.

HOUSTON, Texas (CNN) — Rather than fight a lawsuit by CNN, the federal government abandoned its effort Saturday to prevent the media from reporting on the recovery of the dead in New Orleans.

Joint Task Force Katrina “has no plans to bar, impede or prevent news media from their news gathering and reporting activities in connection with the deceased Hurricane Katrina victim recovery efforts,” said Col. Christian E. deGraff, representing the task force.

U.S. District Court Judge Keith Ellison issued a temporary restraining order Friday against a “zero access” policy announced earlier in the day by Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, who is overseeing the federal relief effort in the city, and Terry Ebbert, the city’s homeland security director. In explaining the ban, Ebbert said, “we don’t think that’s proper” to let members of the media view the bodies.

The judge was to consider granting a permanent injunction Saturday when the government announced its decision not to fight CNN’s lawsuit.

In an e-mail to CNN staff, CNN News Group President Jim Walton said the network filed the the lawsuit to “prohibit any agency from restricting its ability to fully and fairly cover” the hurricane victim recovery process.

After the Galveston hurricane of September 1900, rescue workers had a different way of handling this kind of thing.

Looters found despoiling the dead were summarily executed by the militia - stood against the nearest wall or pile of debris and shot without the hindrance of a trial. The same brutal justice was delivered to amateur photographers. “Word received from Galveston today indicates that Kodak fiends are being shot down like thieves. Two, it is stated, were killed yesterday while taking pictures of nude female bodies.”

The reason for the contradiction is obvious: If Americans were to see the blessings of the Religion of Peace, someone might (rightly) conclude something should be done about it, and we wouldn't want America defending itself, now would we?

The MSM wants to show these dead so that they might do more damage to President Bush when they ought to be going after those primarily responsible for the unnecessary suffering post-Katrina.

+ Word of the Day +

From Life Of The World (a great homepage for your browser):

Luke 6:20-26

Then He lifted up His eyes toward His disciples, and said: "Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you, and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of Man's sake. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy! For indeed your reward is great in heaven, for in like manner their fathers did to the prophets.
'But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full, for you shall hunger. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for so did their fathers to the false prophets."

Luke 18:22-32

Then He said to His disciples, 'Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; nor about the body, what you will put on. Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing. Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which have neither storehouse nor barn; and God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds? And which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? If you then are not able to do the least, why are you anxious for the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If then God so clothes the grass, which today is in the field and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He clothe you, O you of little faith? And do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind. For all these things the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knows that you need these things. But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you. Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom."

Great! When's the swastika-shaped memorial going up?

More evidence of how deeply blind we are to the nature of our enemy: Flight 93 marker design picked:

Four years after United Airlines Flight 93 crashed into a reclaimed strip mine near Shanksville, Somerset County, on Sept. 11, 2001, the design that will serve as the national memorial was unveiled here yesterday in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Hall of Flags.

"Crescent of Embrace" will feature a Tower of Voices, containing 40 wind chimes -- one for each passenger and crew member who died -- and two stands of red maple trees that will line a walkway caressing the natural bowl shape of the land. Forty separate groves of red and sugar maples will be planted behind the crescent, and a black slate wall will mark the edge of the crash site, where the remains of those who died now rest.

As the black cloak that had hidden the winner was removed, a collective gasp came from those gathered, who then rose to their feet to applaud.

In the front row, three family members --a woman who lost her mother, a woman who lost her husband and a woman who lost her brother -- leaned into each other, in a show of love and support.

"It's powerful but understated," said Kiki Homer, whose brother, LeRoy W. Homer Jr., was co-pilot on the plane that crashed after passengers rebelled against terrorist hijackers. "It's beautifully simple.

"My breath is taken away."

Esther Heymann, whose daughter, Elizabeth Wainio, died in the crash, agreed.

"The understatement speaks to the profoundness of what occurred here," she said.

According to jurors who chose the winner, it offers "tranquility, beauty and silence. It will be a place for everyone who visits to feel the spirits of the 40 heroes in the whisper of the trees and honor their unselfish sacrifice of their lives to preserve the lives of countless many."

The winning designers, Paul and Milena Murdoch of Los Angeles, called being selected "an incredible honor."

"There's a huge emotional investment," said Paul Murdoch, 48, his voice choking.

After months of excitement surrounding the design competition, which drew more than 1,000 entries, the project will now move into intense fund-raising and logistical work. No cost estimate or timetable has been set for construction of the memorial, but it will take years.

For the Murdochs, their design evolved all at once, they said, and nothing in it is more important than anything else.

The idea of the Crescent of Embrace, Murdoch said, is to be a gesture of healing and bonding. The crescent marks the edge of the land, which will remain largely untouched.

"It's simple and yet it's complex," said Dorothy Garcia, whose husband, Andy, died in the crash. "The void that's there speaks so loudly to the heroism of these 40 souls."

One of the important attributes of the winning design, Murdoch said, is that it allows the memorial to continually grow and change. The maple trees that create the crescent will be planted at just 15 or 20 feet tall. They won't reach maturity for 40 or 50 years.

"It will be open and evolving as long as it's there," he said. "Our memorial is not about offering explanation for what happened, but to allow people to come to terms with it."

A crescent-shaped memorial for the victims of 9/11; this would be like building a memorial for victims of the Holocaust in the form of a swastika.

"We the people," but for how much longer?

Vote fraud: Worse than you think:

"America is standing on a cliff and if we the people do not get rid of politicians at all levels, the same path of destruction will continue. If Americans think things are bad in this country right now, just wait until the effects of CAFTA (the Central American Free Trade Agreement) begin to kick in, further destroying our sovereignty. Bush wants the FTAA done by Dec. 31, 2005 – and he'll get it. Following the CAFTA vote by Congress, a friend (Republican) who serves in one of the 50 state legislatures said, 'Devvy, Congress is taking us to Hell.'

If you think the 'middle class' is being reduced to poverty level, the worst is yet to come. 'Free trade' has destroyed the most important job sectors that made America the wealthiest, debt-free nation in the history of the world. NAFTA and GATT have reduced entire communities into ghost towns. CAFTA and the FTAA will not only finish off our agriculture, manufacturing and industrial bases, we will be reduced to Third World poverty and a nation that can no longer sustain itself. Consider these words of wisdom ignored by the high-priced hookers who serve in Congress:

The global theory of free trade is siphoning off America's wealth and bringing her economy to the level of others. The theory is displacing American workers who otherwise would be employed.

– Sen. George Malone, 1958

We must get constitutionalists elected in our state houses, Congress and the White House. However, this will not happen until we get rid of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 and all electronic ballot machines. We must go back to hand-counted ballots – counted in front of the public – not in secrecy. In my 'Blind Loyalty' booklet (a copy is on my CD), I gave 45 pages of provable vote fraud – even at the local level – including what happened in my March 1996 primary.

...According to a column by Julie Carr Smyth (Cleveland Plain Dealer Bureau, Aug. 30, 2003) Walden O'Dell, chief executive of Diebold Inc., a big-time money supporter of Bush, sent out a fund-raising letter, Aug. 14, 2003, stating he is "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year." Diebold is one of the three major voting-machine companies in this country.

As we all know, Ohio was a mess on "Election" Day, and Diebold did, indeed, deliver a win for Bush. The Democrats screamed vote fraud, the GOP denied it. However, the GOP fought years in court to claim vote fraud over the alleged election of Democrat Christine Gregoire for governor in Washington State – the court finally put the matter to rest on June 5, 2005. While the finger-pointing goes on, vote fraud continues to get more and more sophisticated.

I urge all Americans: Attend every city council and county board of supervisors meeting. Demand paper ballots, hand counted in front of the general public and get rid of these easily rigged machines. If your elected officials refuse, tell them they will be the target of a recall, and if you don't have recall, make it clear to them they're gone in '06.

The 2006 elections are our last hope to get individuals elected who can and will get the job done in saving this republic. Time grows short for liberty.

Four more years? I hope not.

From Joseph Farah:

Never forget.

Remember 9-11.

No matter what we achieve in Iraq or Afghanistan or any other front in this war on jihadist terrorism, unless we get bin Laden, we will never have closure over the events of Sept. 11, 2001. The longer it takes, the more we risk.

Bin Laden is a symbol out there – a dangerous living symbol. As long as he is alive on this planet, he represents the personification of anti-Americanism and anti-Westernism. He is a rallying point for millions of radical Islamists who want nothing more out of life on this earth than to stick it to us – to kill and maim as many Americans as possible.

Now, there is no question that President Bush's predecessor in the White House missed many golden opportunities to spare us the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001, by taking out bin Laden. Time after time, the 9-11 commission report shows, the decision never even made it to Bill Clinton's desk. The decisions not to attack and kill bin Laden were made by National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, a man who later copped a plea to stealing national security secrets from the National Archives.

Nevertheless, Bush will hardly have Clinton to blame if he doesn't get bin Laden after eight years of trying.

It's time to refocus our efforts on eliminating this human plague from the planet.

It's time to redouble our efforts to find him and smoke him.

It's time to pull out all the stops – and if that means attacking him in Pakistan or Iran or any other nation, we do it. If we have to use bunker-buster bombs or tactical nuclear weapons, we do it. If we have to redeploy armed forces from elsewhere on the globe, we do it.

It's time to use all our great technology and all our great manpower and American ingenuity to do something that will make America's day.

I'm surprised no one else is saying this.

It's been too long.

This is becoming something of a national embarrassment. Bush is very fortunate his political opposition wasn't able to capitalize on this failure to get bin Laden in 2004. If he cares about his country, his party, justice and winning this titanic global conflict with pure, unadulterated evil, he's got to finish the little matter of bin Laden.

Americans don't want him dying of natural causes in some cave.

They don't want to see any more videos and they don't want to hear any more audio tapes.

The longer bin Laden eludes capture or death, the more his legacy as the man who declared war on America grows.

This is not just war, it's personal.