Never Again?

By Charles Krauthammer - Friday, May 5, 2006 - The Washington Post

The establishment of Israel was a Jewish declaration to a world that had allowed the Holocaust to happen -- after Hitler had made his intentions perfectly clear -- that the Jews would henceforth resort to self-protection and self-reliance. And so they have, building a Jewish army, the first in 2,000 years, that prevailed in three great wars of survival (1948-49, 1967 and 1973).

But in a cruel historical irony, doing so required concentration -- putting all the eggs back in one basket, a tiny territory hard by the Mediterranean, eight miles wide at its waist. A tempting target for those who would finish Hitler's work.

There is little doubt that since 9/11, the safety of the world is dependent on effectively dealing with radical islam. That movement that has also been called islamofascism. George Bush uses the euphemism "terrorists" to avoid naming the group in a way that includes the word Islam. He thinks this helps with keeping the war from becoming a war between Islam and the West. In reality, it already is a war between "militant" Islam and the West. How much the ambiguos name has kept moderate Islam from joining is still on open question.

In the meantime, my main focus has been on America's relationship with the "islamofascists", and my belief that 9/11 signalled the certainty that we had to do something really dramatic to change the dynamics of this war that has been going on for over 20 years. It is only a matter of time until nuclear bombs are going off in American cities. However this article by Charles Krauthammer reminds us that the precipitating event for the next great war is more likely the destruction of Israel by the same religious fantatics that created 9/11 than another attack on America.

There is a great body of Americans who are not paying attention. They have no interest in the Middle East and the coming storm is simply being ignored, just as it was ignored in 1938. This time though, unlike in World War II, the enemy will have nuclear bombs. Pakistan already has them and the vast majority of that nation supports not the current government that is on our side, but the fantatics who would use the bombs against us. Iran will have nuclear bombs soon. It is only a matter of time until some part of the radical islam fringe gets their hands on them. Which city do you think will disappear first, Washington or New York? For Americans that is important.

As Krauthammer points out that question really is only about the first city in America. More and more it seems likely that the first city to go will be Tel Aviv. What will America do if that happens? Never again?