And I thought we had culturally gone beyond the “witch doctor” phase.

Our politically correct and “prestigious” institutions, academic and political, are now being run by those most in need of a productive life lived in the real world of informed experience. Their collective comments on any subject however seem to be just a cacophony of PC Utopian noise.

For the antidote to our current problems with a resurgent and deadly Islamism we will need to be taken off our highest level perch–and we will be. The PC Utopians will of necessity again become the trivia they are.

Hard times will demand informed experience and objective gut wrenching actions that will determine if America as conceived will survive. Trivial PC people will not do that.

Those that can will start the climb all over again and eventually the Utopians can live again in their trivia and thrive. It is human to do so and PC Utopian thinking is a disease of the human mind that has been divorced from reality for to long and has a “witch doctor” mentality on how humans think and act.

Listening to or reading comments from VDH gives hope that all have not lost their basic common sense– put there by informed experience.

This enemy cannot be categorized in the same way as previous enemies. We should be acting against the Islamist command and logistics structures; enemy mosques, mullahs and moneymen should not remain off limits.

Repugnant though the prospect is, we should begin thinking about the unthinkable, i.e. the use of WMD including against populations. Heaven forbid that this struggle reaches a stage at which either Western or Islamic civilization will be destroyed–the administration’s lapses have brought us closer to that still-distant point–, but if things come to that pass, I want the West–the USA in particular–to be the survivor.

On the other hand, I gather that much of counterinsurgency is counterintuitive. We should examine how to exploit the weaknesses of the enemy’s cultures through the ruthless use of soft power. This is the part of the struggle which we are not even trying to contest. Even worse, our efforts may be giving the impression of weakness.

Our Current Approach

My lack of confidence in the commander-in-chief’s leadership does not give me a license to subvert his efforts.

When they first assumed command, Grant and Sherman were not the Grant and Sherman whom history remembers. They were dubious second- or third-tier choices who were put in command only because the “best” generals had failed. General Petraeus should be given a chance.

I don’t want another national disgrace like abandoning the South Vietnamese. The material consequences this time would be much worse.

America will Islamified when Hell freezes over. They don’t want – although they may dream – to conquer us. They just want to destroy us. That’s “winning”, even if it destroys them, too.

Our globalized economy is robust, but far from indestrucible. A global banking meltdown that destroys all the “paper” wealth floating around – trillions upon trillions of dollars – and nations defaulting on their debt and $200/barrel oil (the retalitory strike on Iran scattering fallout across the Iraqi oil-fields doesn’t seem too farfetched, although I don’t know weather patterns in the ME) will stop global trade.

Dr. Hanson sounds like he’ll be OK: He has a tractor. Anyone else here know how to farm? We won’t be “destroyed” but I much prefer the 21st century to the 18th.

It would certainly cause widespread panic in all major cities as the populace wonders if bombs are also in their’s waiting to be detonated. Can you imagine a Katrina-style panic evacuation the next day all across America, and where would they go?

It doesn’t have to be a city that is bombed to bring America to its knees, ever hear of an EMP bomb? It’s a nuke detonated at high altitude which releases a huge electromagnetic shock wave knocking out everything electrical for hundereds of miles in all directions: power stations, automobiles, aircraft, etc. Melting millions of miles of powerlines would certainly change our lives for years — until they could be rebuilt.

Iran was reported last year to be testing long-range, high-altitude missles from ships detonating them over the Caspian Sea.

The real problem in the USA is that many people do not believe any of this could happen, they do not believe the enemy can defeat us. Until they do, the war as it is being fought will continue — a no win war. We can’t win until we are willing to destroy that which is causing the problem by any means necessary.

I agree with Anonymous’ neo-Socialists (World Populists) tag, they are the studenst who spent their summers in Europe and, like John Kerry and France, think Europe is a wonderful lifestyle with a four-day workweek and 13 paid holidays a year, not to mention 30-day vacations for everybody and national healthcare. Europe IS a nice place to visit only because you can leave the misserable living conditions and antiquated lifestyles. Why do you think Europe’s wealthist move here?

The whining over “Rules of Engagement” is the clearest sign that NONE of the newest, newer-than-new strategy should be taken seriously. It is Bush’s first shot in establishing the Dolchstosslegende of two lost wars. (How you folks can exonerate the shrub from the supposedly overly restrictive RoE we currently have when he and his cabal have dictated every US action, I do not know.)

Prepare for the GOoPers to be cast into the political wilderness.

Also remember that the US is an armed Nation very much unlike Europe. After a few malls were hit it would be a very dangerous place for any Mid-Eastern folks to move about.

BOB I.

Among most of the comments to this post there seems to be the assumption that we will prevail in the long run. Seems to me, however, that this war, not just the battle in Iraq, cannot be decisively won until those in charge sell the American public (and to a lesser extent the publics of the other free countries) on the only reasonable and necessary justifcation for any war: agressors are threatening our freedom and lives, and free people cannot accept that. Our forces are fighting with their hands tied behind their backs because of the constraints placed on them by public opinion. Islamic totalitarianism cannot beat western liberalism (liberalism in the traditional sense), but Western Civilization could cede its existence out of misplaced guilt and its failure to appreciate its own right to survive and prosper without apology for its success.

In the long run it would be far less cruel to both the Islamicists and our own people to bring full force to bear sooner rather than later. The longer we maintain the status quo, the stronger our enemies grow. The stronger our enemies become, the more costly in lives and resources (on both sides) it will be to finally resolve this clash of freedom versus tyranny, assuming we find the will to bring our strength to bear. It will not end until there is a clear winner and a clear loser. I, for one, value my freedom and want to be on the winning side.