From former NYC mayor Ed Koch:
Democrats Force Surrender Now, Terror Later
Up until now a strong supporter of the war, he's now taking a bleak view. Koch claims the Democrats have won, crippling our forces and achieving their goal of making sure we cannot win. He suggests giving an ultimatum to regional Arab states and our NATO allies, that unless they step in with boots on the ground and assist, we will leave in 30 days!
Even if you don't agree with that assessment, his reasons are interesting to consider. He also predicts the Democrats are going to pay a terrible price for this in the future, when they will have to own what they have done.
From Bernard Lewis:
Was Osama Right?
Islamists always believed the U.S. was weak. Recent political trends won't change their view.
Lewis maintains that since the 1970s, the Islamists believed the Western powers were weaker than the Soviets, whose strength they feared more. When the Soviet empire finally collapsed, the West saw it as our victory; yet the Islamists saw it as theirs. They believed the West would be easy to defeat.
Americas initial response to 9-11 changed that assumption, but as time has wore on, and with current opposition by the Democrats succeeding, they now have reason to believe that they were indeed right after all. And if that is what they believe, then what do you suppose will come next?
In this article Lewis unfortunately repeats the often stated myth that the US created Osama bin Laden by funding him, despite evidence to the contrary. Yet he still gives us a good explanation of the Islamist's strategy, how and why they came to hold those views, and how they must necessarily interpret current events.
