Realclearpolitics Article - Iranian war

Real Clear Politic's article, The War Comes to Us has a lot of good points, but there are some things I don't agree with.

Worse, the Palestinian Authority is the one area where we have tolerated the creation of a new Islamist terrorist regime, on the grounds that it is "democratically elected." As I explained in "The Weapon of Democracy," in TIA's last print issue, this is how the US has been disarmed by the dangerously vague concept of "democracy": if we claim that we are fighting for liberty, and then we equate liberty with "democracy"--then how can we condemn a "democratically elected" terrorist regime?

The strategy is simple, because it is a war strategy, not a political strategy of "liberation. When you give people a stake in their lives, an ability to decide how they should live, the terroists will attack the people. This gives America more credibility and the terroists less. This makes asymmetrical warfare more symmetrical, giving America back our usual advantages.

When Hamas was elected the government, the US could not use that as a pretext to stop "funding" the PLO. Israel had been sending millions of whatever to the PLO, literally funding the terroists that have been killing Israelis. When Hamas was elected, the war became one between states, not terroists vs occupation forces.

Democracy is a disease, and Hamas has been infected.

But Israel has a history of becoming bolder when it is under attack. The only alternative, for a small nation in such a hostile neighborhood, is suicide--and the Israelis are far from being so broken as to accept such a suicide. Hence, there are signs that the recent Hamas and Hezbollah attacks are discrediting the policy of "disengagement," Israel's strategy of retreat and surrender. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, the main political front man for "disengagement," has gone so far as to declare the Hezbollah attack an "act of war." Yossi Klein Halevi draws the obvious conclusion:

Israe's strategy was not 'surrender and retreat'. Ridiculous. Militaristically, it is in fact a small force of Israelis finding a defensible location and fortifying up, waiting for an enemy attack. When the enemy attacks, the Israelis use that as an excuse to go full war mode.

The Israelis drew a line in the sand, and when Hizbollah crossed it on the command of Iran, Israel used that as the pretext to start a war. A war is very different from surrender and retreat, btw.

Iran is risking everything on this new strategy, and the only hope they have of success is the expectation that, as they bring the war closer and closer to America, we won't fight back.

No battle plan survives contact with the enemy.

I believe this is a pretty good analysis to read with RCpolitics.