The War On Terror Continues

Don't let John Kerry and the other pantywaists in the Democratic Party tell you otherwise ... the war on terror is continuing and the remaining threats are all more serious than those that we just reduced. Unfortunately, for America as well as Bush's election chances, these threats grow more grave by the day. As the Wall Street Journal is reporting, Pakistan is still a rouge regime, and may indeed be the most evil of the axis. Yet, Bush keeps courting them. Why?

True, the politics are dicey and Pakistan must remain our friend (at least officially) but concerns like this one really raise questions:


We will find that, since Pakistan is steered by the iron hand of its secret service and its army, it is inconceivable that Khan operated alone without orders or cover. We will understand more precisely that we cannot repeat without contradiction that, on the one hand, the Pakistani nuclear arsenal is under control, and that not a warhead can budge without the authorities' knowledge, and, on the other, that Khan was acting alone, working on his own account, with no official connivance. To put it simply and disconcertingly: Pakistan's nuclear weapons need to be secured. They cannot--will not--be secured by Pakistan alone.

I don't know what to do with Pakistan. I am pretty sure that neither Bush nor Kerry know what to do either, but at least President Bush possesses the backbone and intestinal fortitude necessary to confront these challenges in a real world sort of way. Those qualities, sadly, appear to be missing in all but a handful of democrats (and none of the remaining presidential aspirants)

The consequences of a misstep here are dire indeed. al Qaeda is only one bullet away from control of pakistan's nuclear weapons. Its likely that as a result of Khan's actions, many other countries either possess nuclear weapons or are a short time away from possessing them. What is most frightening for me is that MAD doesn't fit in the equation. These people want us ALL to return to the stone age, and our efforts to bomb them preemptively may unleash nuclear holocaust (at least an attack on Pakistan will). Whether we win an actual sustained war (in the traditional sense) or not isn't really a question. Rather, we need to be asking ourselves what would it take to convince the mass body of Islam that it was going to lose the war. Death alone, where death is not feared but looked to as the ultimate honor, is not a deterrent.

We faced the same dilemma with Japanese kamikaze bombers during World War II and only won that war or attrition after devastating large portions of Japan and killing many of the nation's citizens. I approve of our actions in World War II and sometimes fear we are heading into a similar scenario in the war on terror.

All of this, of course, begs the ultimate question of do we have the will to do what's right and needed. Sadly, I think we do not. For the sake of the Republic, I hope I am wrong but the current direction of national politics leaves me trembling with fear.