A Matter of Respect

From Michael:

"Military historian Victor Davis Hanson of the Hoover Institute writes: "Real peace and successful reconstruction are in direct proportion to the degree to which an enemy has been vanquished - the aim being that an enemy will come to understand that it cannot go on being what it has been"

I have been attempting to re-educate Americans of this truth for years.

In the case of the Middle-East, (and I should know) it is a matter of "respect", our version of the Asian "saving face". Only absolute, brute force is respected in my neighbourhood. The Administration's "Democracy building" policies, coupled with the various [hair brained] ecumenical "outreach to Islam" programmes, have convinced our Islamic enemies that the West is feeble and lacking in determination. Every act of appeasement, whether it is building a school in Iraq or hosting an inter-faith conference in New York, emboldens our enemies and strengthens the cause of the new Caliphate.

Douglas MacArthur forced a vanquished Japan to renounce their cult of Shinto militarism at the end of World War Two. The Japanese Emperor stood before the nation, repudiated his divinity and proclaimed that the Japanese people were not superior to other races. In Islam's war against the West, we have done the opposite. We have spared no effort trying to elevate the cult of Mohammed to the status of a "Religion of Peace" and an equal, if not superior to, our own  Judeo-Christian faiths. This paradoxical reaction to acts of terrorism and the continuing Jihad against the West has encouraged our enemies and made them even more confident of a final victory of the "Great Satan".

Mumbai is the Islamic answer to "Interfaith dialogue", and Gaza is America's future. 

It's a matter of respect.