What the Heck was I Thinking!?

Dr. Sanity, one of my favorite bloggers, and the Anchoress pointed me toward an opinion article in the Telegraph. As I read through it, One paragraph stuck out at me:

 

The Americans’ tactics in Iraq, and their sanction for Israel’s tactics in Lebanon, have given rise to astonishment and anger in Europe. It may well be that those tactics are counter-productive, and that the Americans and Israelis need to take a different approach to these ventures if they are ever to have any hope of winning hearts and minds.

What struck me about this paragraph was that last sentence - in fact, the last part, "if they are ever to have any hope of winning hearts and minds."

 

Who really believes that we will win the hearts and minds of many in the Islamic world by doing anything short of wiping Israel off the map ourselves and bringing every American back into the US? If people don’t see that the US is the only country that has gone to war without ever building an empire out of the conquered territories; hasn’t gone in to reconstruct the countries of our former enemies as soon as the hostilities have ended; and even gone to countries that are not our friends by any means with aid in their time of need; then no amount of other work will change their minds.

I look at the different behavior of the French, the Germans, the Italians and others around the world and the only difference I see is that the Islamo-fascists have more open contempt for them than they do for the US. The Islamo-fascists are persuaded by their actions to view these Europeans or other countries as equals in the world. They don’t consider their feelings and interests of any value. They simply sneer at them more openly and focus their manipulation of the media at driving the wedge deeper between the US and Europe.

I believe that the US will not succeed in attempting to win the hearts and minds so long as the governments and other influential institutions in Islamic countries do not view the US as allies or friends. 

His last paragraph:

"These formidable people think freedom is so valuable that it is worth dying for."

ring true in my mind. It is worth dying for, and we must remember what freedom is worth, and what it is like to live without freedom.