Nice and to the point

Dale Franks, writing at QandO, succinctly defines the fallacy that underlies pure pacifism:

In the interwar years of the 20s and 30s, and idea grew that, because the Great War was foolish, senseless, solved nothing, and proved nothing, that all wars are senseless in the same way. Now, in Europe, and, sadly, much of America, a similar feeling has developed. In many ways, this is completely understandable, yet, as Boot points out, it ignores an inconvenient, but hugely important fact.
No matter how much you desire peace, you will not have it if you are opposed by an enemy who desires war. (emphasis mine -RR)

There are people out there that desire our destruction. They will not be appeased, and they will not stop unless one of the following happens:

1. We die.


2. We submit and become dhimmi.


3. We convert to their brand of Islam.


4. They realize that they simply cannot win, that they are responsible for their own failure and not us, and that their brand of fascism is a dead-end.


5. They die.

Of these, the last is the most likely. What we are attempting to do in Iraq is part of a plan to bring about option 4. Or, rather, to bring about a change in the culture of the region so that the culture, in general, chooses option 4. In a sense, we're trying to kill one culture and allow a healthier one to take it's place. We won't be able to kill every "Islamo-fascist" that exists and there will certainly continue to be those who cling to that ideology even if we are successful. The idea is to change the fundamental character of the region so that it doesn't tend to produce such people anymore.

But, for now, we are faced with an implacable enemy. All are kind words mean nothing to them, except as signs of our weakness and decadence. We will continue to say those words because we are, at heart, a kind and generous people. But we must also answer their violent actions with violence of our own because that is the only thing they truly respect and fear. They expected us to roll over and die after September 11. Imagine their shock when we did the opposite and took out both the Taliban and Saddam Hussein. We must make sure that we don't backslide into the old ways of appeasement and ineffectual response but continue to take the fight to these enemies until either option 4 or 5 is brought about.