In the long run - it doesn't matter

I suppose I should address the current fol-de-rol in Congress about Iraq resolutions, attempts to cut funding for the war, demands for a phased withdrawl starting in 90 days, etc etc. So I will.
But first I'm going to tell you about an old girlfriend of mine.

Once, oh it must have been about 25 years ago, I took a young lady to visit with a friend of mine. For some reason or other, the talk got around to her sister, who had recently been busted with her live-in boyfriend for possession of pot, and had spent the weekend in jail before the family bailed her out.

My friend, though at that time a respectable small businessman, married with two fine kids, had in his callow youth done 18 months in various federal institutions for strong-arm robbery. So you could say he knew something about the reality of being incarcerated and was in a position to offer advice and commentary on my lady friend's sister's situation.

What my lady friend said was, "Oh my God, you should have seen the state she was in! I'm so glad we got her out in time, she couldn't have stood it for much longer."

My bud replied, "Of course she could have, she'd have learned to deal with it."

"You don't understand, she was hysterical. She'd have gone crazy if she'd had to stay in there much longer."

"And then maybe she'd have gone catatonic. And when she came out of it she'd still be there, and they wouldn't let her out. She might go through it all over again: hysterical, crazy, catatonic. And at the end she'd still be there - and they wouldn't let her out. However many times she went through it, she'd still be there, and they wouldn't let her out. She'd learn to deal with it, because she'd have to."

I think you can see how this relates to the war for civilization - if you believe that that is in fact what we're engaged in. If you don't - you will eventually. Because you'll have to. Because they won't let you out.

My friend Bob Bidinotto has a post on his blog I highly recommend:

http://bidinotto.journalspace.com/

"In the meantime, though, the worst message to send to all those enemy regimes and Islamists worldwide -- and to our own gallant fighting men and women -- is the sort of "no confidence" vote engineered in Congress this week by the Cut-and-Run Party and a handful of RINO fellow travelers. Make no mistake: Our enemies see this congressional vote as a raised white flag -- as a clear signal that, once again, America will capitulate and retreat whenever Islamists ramp up the costs in blood and treasure. And make no mistake: American soldiers can only be demoralized by such craven displays of division and defeatism while they are risking their lives on the front lines against radical Islam."

While agreeing with Bob on all points, I say that in the long run it doesn't matter.

Withdraw from Iraq and leave the jihadists in charge. They'll be jubilant and start making preparations for renewed assaults on America (in between murdering each other). Abandon Israel and force it to deal with Iran themselves. They'll blame us when Israel takes steps to assure their survival. Or when Israel is consumed in nuclear fire, they'll blame us for the deaths of the Palestinians in the conflagration. End all involvement in the Middle East, empty the treasury to build mosques in Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq, Iran and Pakistan, have George W. Bush announce his conversion to Islam - it doesn't freakin' matter.

Because they won't let us out.

After we've gone through it all, once, twice, however many times it takes, they'll still be at war with us. And eventually everyone who balks even a little, at surrender to and dhimmi status within a jihadists state, will be convinced.

And when that day comes, I shouldn't like to be living in any of the countries that supply jihadist recruits and covertly support them. Nobody wages war as cruelly as a pacifist who has finally been moved to violence. (Consider Woodrow "too proud to fight" Wilson.)

"You're wrong, you're crazy, you're a monster!" I hear you say. Brother, you don't know how much I wish you were right. I find myself in the position of, if I'm right - I lose. Maybe the things that are more precious to me than my life. If I'm wrong - I win. My children won't be fighting this war, and our people won't be condemned by history for a slaughter we might have avoided if we'd seen the writing on the wall and acted sooner.

The day the man with the wide-brimmed hat nods over one of our cities, the day our people start to die in numbers comparable to the flu of 1918, the day a dirty bomb goes off in downtown Manhattan, is the day the world gets reminded that this fat, happy country of ours, this cheerfully hedonistic civilization, is also the most terrible engine of slaughter the world has ever seen.

And when that day comes the pacifists won't be condemning the slaughter - they'll be the butchers. There is after all, no prude like a reformed whore.