THE MIDDLE EAST

War has been a fact of life in The Middle East for centuries. It certainly didn’t start in this century and it probably will not end in this century. From all indications the Palestinians now seem bent on self destruction. For several years they have been poking and picking at a giant bear who has, for the most part, allowed the harassment to go on. That giant bear is of course Israel. It would appear now however that the giant bear has awakened and is about to grant the Palestinians their wish of destruction.

Gaza will be only the beginning. Iran and Syria will follow with virtual total destruction of all their major cities and what commerce they have. If Israel does it right, the whole episode will take less than a week. If you don’t think they possess the ability then you are mistaken.

The world through the august body known as The United Nations will be aghast. Condemnations will abound. Trials will no doubt be held at the World Court and Israel will probably be found guilty of all sorts of crimes. Why, you ask? Well, it would seem that for Israel to defend her territory against her enemies and to try to stop the continuing missile assault on her cities and schools, they would be committing a crime in the eyes of a part of the so-called liberal minded European world.

Iran and Syria must be punished for their participation in the scheme to eliminate Israel. Their ability to pose a threat to Israel must and will be neutered. Israel needs to end this nonsense once and for all. I would hope that Lebanon will see the only answer for them is to stay out of it and control their semi-feral populace. If they step into the fray, they will surely suffer the same humiliation as their neighbors.

So, why should we care? What difference does it make to us so many thousands of miles away? There are many reasons for us to examine. First in my view is that Israel is our ally. We were there at the beginning and we have pledged our support as an ally. That cannot be taken lightly. Secondly, if Israel is allowed to fall at the hands of the radical Muslim world we will surely suffer right along with them. This brings me to the final reason. We are the pre-imminent World power and our allies are under out protection. We need to act like the world power that we are and the world needs to understand exactly what that means. If we fail in our duty to our allies, we lose all credibility in the eyes of others. In addition if we fail to show the world that we, along with Israel, are serious in our defense of liberty and freedom, we cheat the world and deceive them into thinking that they could compete with us militarily. That just invites more death and destruction.

Our path is clear here. We give Israel any support they need whether that lies in fly-over permission of Iraq, or armaments to fill their storehouses. Our job is to clearly be there for them. It is my belief that when these would be enemies see what they face, the survivors will try to return to a peaceful life and stay out of trouble.

Will that end the conflict? No. What it might do however is to give the radicals pause. It may allow them to re-examine their thinking before they get too aggressive again.

To those among you who think my solution is too extreme, I offer this. The only way any war can truly end is for there to be a winner and a loser. That has been the case since the beginning of time and nothing has changed. We need to make sure that Israel is the winner.

Ron Scarbro January 14, 2009