Christ Matthews, who may be a senator someday, voted for W.  I forget which time--maybe both times.  This is apropos of everything.  Our decisions in life tell who we are.  This country is still divided--in terms of the pundit and pundit-wannabe class:  Bush was right to go into Iraq, one hand; the prez was dead wrong to go into Iraq, the other.  He was wrong, according to Mr. Simon, tonight w/ Hardball, because Iraq posed no threat to us.  (Yes, but....)  He was right (for Cheney, O'Reilly, the so-called neocons like Bill Kristol and Charles Krauthammer and Rudy) because eventually Saddam would use terror and worse to seriously harm us.  Plus, plus the fact that if we could win in Iraq, making it an ally, this reality would mean a new, positive reality--eventually--in the Middle East as a whole.  There would be a "domino effect."  First Iraq a republic of sorts; then maybe some others as well. In any case, we'd be forever a thorn in the side of the likes of Ahmadinejad, and Israel would have a major ally closer to home.  (And yet more U.S. military bases stationed in the Middle East--the more to antagonize the one point five billion Muslims around the world--if UBL gets his way.) 

 

Well, as Pat Buchanan wisely pointed out tonight on MSLSD ( I love Mark Levin for this expression), it all depends.  The legacy of Bush, that is.  It all depends on what happens in Afghanistan over the next ten years or so.  Pat points out that Karzai is really in effect only the "mayor" of Kabul--he's not running the show in Afghanistan.  According to Pat and the thought of Daniel Pipes, Bush's efforts to create this "domino effect" of Western-inspired states in the Mideast has failed or is likely to fail.  Buchanan argues that the Taliban is not likely to be defeated.  Not even by the biggest and best of military machines.  The Taliban is an empire destroyer.  It is like a "David" to the "Goliath" of our Western Imperialism.  (My metaphor, not Mr. Buchanan's.)  The Taliban and al-Qaida are not going anywhere.  If anything, as the shoe-throwing humiliation proves, they appear to be stronger than ever in terms of the street support in the Arab world, the world of Islam. 

 

At a U.S. Naturalization Ceremony in Texas a few brief years ago, I noted that the largest contingent, or second only to Mexico, was new citizens from Pakistan.  It is worth remembering that Steven Emerson, shortly after 9/11, stated a concern about "sleeper cells" of al-Qaida in, of all places, Arlington, TX.  Presumably, this heads-up mentioned on national TV was nothing new to the authorities.  No doubt the FBI was then, and is now, on the case--whatever the case may be.  There is a very strong school of engineering in Arlington, TX., a place where Arab faces are quite noticeable.  Of course, most Arabs and most Muslims are "moderates."  That is, unless you believe the teachings of Mr. Robert Spencer, who argues that the Koran teaches the killing of all infidels, and that the only reason more Muslims are not on board with this yet is similar to the reasons why Christians are not yet on board with Christian Virtue--it's very costly to be a true believer.  If Spencer is correct, and if Pipes is wrong--he has high hopes for the "moderates"--then we might well pray that Christians convert themselves to true Christianity, and that, on the other side, Muslims continue not to convert to true Islam, a religion of death as far as all infidels are concerned, that is, we are all to be eventually put to the sword.