Tempest in a...

Well, it's a presidential election year, and no incumbent running, so one must anticipate that anything the current President says or does will be grist for the mill.

Still, I think the reaction to President Bush's speech to the Israeli Knesset is overblown, to say the least.

Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along.

I learned of this speech when I saw a CNN Poll asking whether we agreed with President Bush when he said we shouldn't "talk to our enemies."
Let's back up a bit and examine the fuller context, the preceding, say three or four paragraphs:

The fight against terror and extremism is the defining challenge of our time. It is more than a clash of arms. It is a clash of visions, a great ideological struggle. On the one side are those who defend the ideals of justice and dignity with the power of reason and truth. On the other side are those who pursue a narrow vision of cruelty and control by committing murder, inciting fear, and spreading lies.

This struggle is waged with the technology of the 21st century, but at its core it is an ancient battle between good and evil. The killers claim the mantle of Islam, but they are not religious men. No one who prays to the God of Abraham could strap a suicide vest to an innocent child, or blow up guiltless guests at a Passover Seder, or fly planes into office buildings filled with unsuspecting workers. In truth, the men who carry out these savage acts serve no higher goal than their own desire for power. They accept no God before themselves. And they reserve a special hatred for the most ardent defenders of liberty, including Americans and Israelis.

And that is why the founding charter of Hamas calls for the "elimination" of Israel. And that is why the followers of Hezbollah chant "Death to Israel, Death to America!" That is why Osama bin Laden teaches that "the killing of Jews and Americans is one of the biggest duties." And that is why the president of Iran dreams of returning the Middle East to the Middle Ages and calls for Israel to be wiped off the map.

There are good and decent people who cannot fathom the darkness in these men and try to explain away their words. It's natural, but it is deadly wrong. As witnesses to evil in the past, we carry a solemn responsibility to take these words seriously. Jews and Americans have seen the consequences of disregarding the words of leaders who espouse hatred. And that is a mistake the world must not repeat in the 21st century.

Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: "Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided." We have an obligation to call this what it is — the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.

OK, that was five paragraphs. Oh, well. Looks pretty clear who--or rather, the type of person-- President Bush is talking about. Umbrella's anyone?

I suppose that, given what I said above regarding "anything the current President says or does ...(being) grist for the mill", it should not surprise me that Obama and most of the Democratic Party are accusing President Bush of accusing them of... something, especially after Hamas said they hoped that Obama would win the election. (Speaking of which, if President Bush had anyone in mind, it was probably Jimmy Carter.)

President Bush also made this point:

Some people suggest if the United States would just break ties with Israel, all our problems in the Middle East would go away.

To call that naive would be to be guilty of understatement, to say the least; this belief is on a par with that of Senator William Borah, cited in President Bush's Knesset speech, that he could have prevented WWII by simply talking to Hitler before he invaded Poland.

(I used Political Radar as a background source for much of this post.)