Saddam Hussein has been sentenced to hang for the deaths of 148 Kurds he claims were involved in an assassination attempt against him. While these deaths represent only a tiny fraction of the deaths of which he is guilty, the verdict may at last provide some closure for the Iraqi people.

Parts of Iraq are showing signs of becoming calm. The Baghdad area is still a war zone, but that may change with time. The question is, what will Iraq be like once the dust has finally settled? The new Iraqi constitution makes generous allowances to Islamic law. That could make the "new" Iraq a de facto Islamic regime. What a shame that would be. At this point it could go either way. Hard line Muslim fundamentalists will not peacefully retreat to the sidelines and allow a secular government to rule Iraq.

A number of changes must occur for Iraq to become a peaceful and free nation. First, the various factions must come together with an honest desire for peace. The Sunnis and Shiites must lay down their weapons and leave tribalism behind. The Kurds must have some degree of autonomy. And all of them must learn the hard lesson that there is no freedom to be had under a theocracy.

Our Founding Fathers recognized that last fact. Religion and government must coexist peacefully for freedom to be achievable. One governs the physical realm of people's day to day lives, while the other provides guidance to our hearts and minds. Unfortunately, one can easily make the case that hearts and minds guided by Islam end up wearing bomb belts and blowing up pizza parlors.

The Middle East is a deeply religious part of the world. More so than the United States and certainly more than secular Europe. The problem here is that Islam is such a violent religion. I'll not spend time extolling the virtues of Christianity. It should however, be noted that Christianity left its bloody history behind centuries ago. Baptists don't lop off the heads of Methodists, and Evangelicals don't strap on a bomb belt and blow up the local Kingdom Hall. Compare the reactions of Muslims around the world to the now-famous cartoons of Muhammad, and the quiet dignity and forgiving nature of the Amish in Pennsylvania after the recent bloodbath in a one-room schoolhouse near Lancaster.

Freedom of (or from, if you prefer) religion is among the most important freedoms any nation's people may possess. In Iraq, true religious freedom and equality would allow other teachings to be heard throughout the country and this could eventually lessen the influence of Islam. As Islam's iron-fisted grip was loosened, both the violence and the ignorance perpetuated by that vile so-called faith might finally begin to decline.

This of course begs the question: Can Iraq find its way to religious freedom? Do they even desire it?

I wish I knew. To put it mildly, Saddam was a brutal dictator. But if one can momentarily set aside the corruption and avarice of his regime, the reasoning behind his harsh ways becomes apparent. Had Saddam, who is more of a secularist than a zealot, sought to be a benevolent ruler, he'd have been overrun by Islamic fundamentalists. A pack of wild dogs is ruled by the meanest and strongest mutt of the pack, and Saddam was arguably the "baddest dawg" in all of Iraq. Iraq was a cruel and dangerous place under Saddam, but not so much as Afghanistan under the rule of the Taliban.  His willingness to kill political and ideological opponents kept much of Iraq in line, and the result was a somewhat orderly nation. Not a free nation by any stretch of the imagination, but an orderly one.

I'm not defending Saddam. He's an evil and egomaniacal man who richly deserves the noose. But I will go as far as to say that he isn't the worst of the evils lurking in the desert. As long as Islamic fundamentalists hold sway over the minds of the Middle East, there will be no true freedom. Well-meaning but misguided efforts by the US and other nations to "free" Arabs from Islamic rule will continue to meet violent resistance, and the reason is obvious to those willing to face the unpleasant truth.

Western-style freedom is looked upon as a corrupting influence by Islamic true believers. A culture that requires women to cover themselves head to toe for the sake of "decency" cannot be expected to embrace a way of life that might include bare breasts at Mardi Gras, mini skirts, hip hop music and gay marriage. Our culture is regarded with disgust and fear by Muslims. And that disgust and fear has lead to hatred and violence. The 911 attacks didn't occur because of any specific action by the US. Those attacks occurred because of what and who we are. The US has no desire to coerce Iraq to embrace indecent behavior, but many in the Middle East perceive otherwise.

The influence of Islam may very well be the downfall of Iraq's future. No civilized society can exist under the heel of an oppressive theocracy, and no religion is more oppressive than Islam. Until the Arab world recognizes the necessity of keeping religion and government out of each other's way, the Middle East will continue to be a place of death and destruction. To be honest, if they were only killing each other and leaving the rest of us alone, I doubt I'd care all that much. They've been busy destroying each other for centuries and they're not likely to change anytime soon. But that culture of death is spilling over into the civilized world, and the result has been chaos across Europe and the catastrophic attacks on the US in 2001.

Osama bin Laden has falsely claimed that America is at war with all of Islam. Perhaps it's time to make his claim a valid one. As long as Islam exists in its current form, there will be no end to the violence. Saddam Hussein wasn't the problem in Iraq. He was a symptom of the disease called "Islam."

 The upcoming elections are problematic at best. How does one vote with any confidence when both major parties are up to their eyeballs in scandal? How does one place any faith in the Republicans when they've fallen flat on their faces on so many major issues? How can we take the Democrats seriously when they no longer even bother to cover up their lies and political game-playing?

One thing I've learned over the years is that when one party makes an accusation against the other, that accusation is likely to be true of both parties. Dirty politics has reached new lows in recent years. Candidates are far more likely to seek election based upon how badly they can scandalize the opposition, rather than trying to honestly earn our votes. And there are plenty of scandals to go around.

The list reads like a Who's Who of weak ethics, sexual perversion and naked avarice. William Jefferson, Mark Foley, Harry Reid, Tom Delay, Nancy Pelosi, Bob Ney and others continue to hog the headlines in an orgy of pure old trashy behavior. Each party shamelessly points its greasy fingers at the other and shouts "corruption" at the top of its lungs. Neither party has the character to look inward and clean up its own mess.

All this might be easier to take if our government was being run with some semblance of efficiency. Unfortunately, it seems they're all too busy slinging mud and rhetoric to accomplish anything worthwhile.

The Democrat Party hasn't had a fresh idea in fifty years. The Republicans have actually presented a few good ideas, but lack the spine to act upon them. All in all, our government has become an international embarrassment to the people it supposedly serves. Beneath the dome of the capitol, where once dwelt hard-working men and women who had the nation's interests at heart, now lurks a pack of power-hungry, money-grubbing thieves and liars. Their votes are for sale to the highest bidder, and no average citizen can hope to outbid the power players who lobby congress for dozens of special interest groups. Regardless of which side of the ideological fence you call home, you have little true representation in Washington.

At the White House, a once-popular President muddles along, telling us to Stay The Course while operatives of radical Islam stream across our border with Mexico. George W. Bush has no intentions of securing our border, in spite of the fact that the vast majority of Americans have screamed loudly for proper enforcement. America's sovereignty is for sale, and more and more American jobs will soon be on the auction block as the Bush Administration prepares to bypass our ports and remove the last barriers restraining the flood of cheap products from China and Mexico. Bush is even planning a gigantic foreign-operated superhighway to accommodate the invasion.

So... who do we vote for in November?

As bad as they are, the GOP still seems to be the best choice. While the current crop of Republicans are but a faded shadow of the 1994 Conservative Revolution, the party's platform still comes closer to American values than that of the Democrats. The Deaniac Democrats have drifted so far leftward that they bear no resemblance to the party that stood for the working man back in the 40's and 50's. They're little more than a gang of socialists, and America is not a socialist nation. The Democrat Party is undeserving of our votes.

The Repubs however, are only marginally better. Both parties are rife with corruption. Both pay lip service to border security while seeking to pave the way for 15 million illegal immigrants to gain a legal foothold on our soil. Both play the War on Terror and our economy to their own political advantage.

The best that any commonsense American can hope for at this point is that the Republicans retain control of the House and Senate, and elect new leadership to lift them out of their doldrums and put America back on track. Whether it's a Republican flirting with young boys, or a Democrat with $90,000 in his freezer, our government absolutely must clean the skeletons out of its closets and get back to the job of running this country.

As Americans, we have the right and the obligation to expect better of our elected leaders.

Related Reading:

Nancy Pelosi

http://www.gopbloggers.org/mt/archives/002196.html

Mark Foley

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1006/p02s01-uspo.html

Harry Reid

http://www.netscape.com/viewstory/2006/10/12/senate-leader-tied-to-mob-land-scandal/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cbsnews.com%2Fstories%2F2006%2F10%2F11%2Fap%2Fpolitics%2FmainD8KMJ8I00.shtml&frame=true

Tom Delay

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-09-28-delay-analysis_x.htm

William Jefferson

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=1991341&page=1

Bob Ney

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10841406/

Larry Shirley is a city councilman in Charleston, SC. After viewing a video of an armed robbery conducted by a group of young teenage children, he publicly stated that parents of bad children should be sterilized.

Said Councilman Shirley…

"We pick up stray animals and spay them. These mothers need to be spayed if they can't take care of theirs. Once they have a child and it's running the street, to let them continue to have children is totally unacceptable." (The Conservative Voice)

This may seem insensitive to some, but I think old Larry might be onto something here. You know the old sayings: “Like father like son,” and “like mother like daughter.” Yeah, this could actually benefit our society. But why stop there?

Let’s also sterilize ugly adults, so that after a few years go by we’ll no longer be burdened with ugly children. You know how it is… the ugly kids in school are picked on and abused anyway, and then the beautiful, popular kids get in trouble for it. That’s unfair. When I was in school, I got in trouble almost daily for picking on this kid with no chin and a hooked nose. His eyebrows were grown together, too, so we nicknamed him “Uni-brow.” We thought it was pretty funny, but for some reason he never grasped the humor of it.

Moving right along, perhaps it’d also be a good plan to spay stupid people as well. Heck of an idea! If we can sterilize every man and woman with an IQ under 85, we could drastically reduce poverty, crime, drug use and Democrat voters. Yep. This is sounding better all the time.

While thinking this through, it occurs to me that perhaps we should be proactive. It’d take several generations for all the “undesirables” to die off, so maybe we should speed the process? Hey, it absolutely must be done in a humane manner. Totally painless. Someone wake up Doctor Kevorkian and get some ideas on this.

But, who to eliminate?

Left-handed people? Get’em out of here. They look too weird when they play the guitar. C’mon, we all know that being left-handed isn’t normal. I know this because I’m normal and I’m right-handed.

Gays? Gimme a break. If we get rid of the homosexuals, then the word “gay” can go back to its original meaning. If you don’t know, look it up.

And is anyone else bothered by really skinny people? Bugs the Heck out of me. Put them on a special diet for six months. After that, anyone with less than 35% body fat must see Doctor Kevorkian. Fair is fair.

Better yet, why not make Larry Shirley the Czar of Desirable People. I’ll put my trust in Larry any day. If Larry doesn’t like them, then they gotta go.

Okay, I’ll quit acting crazy. Larry Shirley evidently sees himself as being far enough up the food chain to decide who can be fruitful, and who must wither on the vine. I wonder if Mr. Shirley has a clue that most free nations (including the US) oppose China’s policy of forced abortions and sterilizations? Perhaps, Mr. Shirley, you should pack up and move to Communist China. You’d fit right in, and the USA will be a better place without you.

Related Reading:

• S.C. official: Sterilize bad parents
• Councilman Larry Shirley’s web page

 

 

 

 Americans and other civilized nations have considerable difficulty comprehending a culture that is built upon a foundation of death and destruction. The continual calls for diplomacy and concessions regarding Radical Islam are evidence of this fact. Diplomacy has little chance of working, and the reasons are obvious if one is willing to confront a few unpleasant truths.

In civilized nations like the USA, Canada and the UK, we have vibrant cultures that value life. We’re taught from an early age to respect not only the lives of our neighbors but their rights as fellow countrymen. We don’t (at least, we’re not supposed to) differentiate between race, gender, color or creed. Our societies are designed to be free and safe, and for the most part that design has been a rousing success. Certainly we have our own unique national headaches, but they pale in comparison to the benefits of living in freedom.

Compare this to a people living under the iron fist of a Fundamentalist Islamic regime. A husband and wife cannot have a normal relationship because men’s minds are poisoned against women. People live in fear of when and where the next car bomb will explode. Young women are stoned to death for adultery. In some parts of the Middle East, one can go to prison or even face execution for watching “Western” programming on the television.

Even the most mundane vices are denied the masses. No Jack Daniels, no Playboy Magazine, no Monday Night Football. And, I believe it’s safe to assume that the Victoria’s Secret catalogs aren’t widely circulated, either. Last time I looked, Victoria didn’t offer burqas anyway.

Consider Fazul Hadi Shinwari, named to Afghan President Karzai’s Supreme Court in June of 2002…

…To head the Supreme Court, however, he (Karzai) appointed Shinwari, a man with a well-publicized commitment to implementing hard-line sharia. On January 24, for instance, Shinwari had told the international press that under the new government, adulterers would be stoned to death, the hands of thieves amputated, and consumers of alcohol given 80 lashes…(freedomhouse.org – 2002)

Wow… knowing that such fair-minded humanitarians are leading the freedom movement in Afghanistan makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

In parts of the Middle East and Europe Muslims, especially Muslim men, are taught from an early age to despise those who do not follow this oppressive interpretation of the Islamic faith. They’re taught that infidels (non-Muslims, aka “kafirs” or “dhimmis”) are to be converted, subjugated or killed.

And, they’re taught that blowing up a group of infidels along with oneself will get you all manner of goodies unavailable to the faithful Muslim extremist here on Earth. What sorts of goodies? Well…

He gets to frolic with 72 beautiful virgins for all eternity (makes me tired just thinking of it).

He can also partake of 28 young boys, but I’m not touching that one.

And, Muslim Paradise will evidently have a good supply of wine. The Qur’an speaks of flowing rivers of wine in Paradise. I’d thought at first that this would be to loosen up those 72 virgins, but upon further reading I learned that the wine is evidently alcohol-free (Qur’an 37:43-47). I’d be highly upset to discover that I’d blown myself up for grape juice. I suppose a Budweiser would be out of the question, right?

Death is an avenue for Muslim terrorists to escape a miserable life and enter an erotic paradise. This, coupled with the fact that these misguided souls are taught to hate those they’re attacking makes it unlikely that they’ll listen to reason. In life, their only emotional release is to vent their savagery upon the innocent. In death, they expect to find peace, happiness and kinky sex. In their minds, they have nothing to live for, and everything to die for.

This is why every treaty and every ceasefire has ultimately failed. A ceasefire agreement merely gives Muslim terrorists some free time to clean their guns and plan another attack. Diplomatic efforts are considered signs of weakness, since they amount to a plea to stop the fighting. Understand this: Radical Islam doesn’t want to stop fighting. They live for the fight and for the moment of their deaths so that they may receive their heavenly reward. You cannot reason with people who believe this way.

The Iranian president and the fledgling Hamas government in Palestine have voiced a willingness to come to the negotiating table under certain conditions. With the Palestinian people in such desperate straits, there exists a possibility that Hamas is being sincere. But that sincerity will be meaningless when terrorists from Syria and Iran flow into Palestine to punish the Palestinians for daring to consider peace with Israel. As long as the current regime dominates Iran, they are absolutely not worthy of trust.

Israel will be attacked again, and Israel will retaliate again. And the busybodies around the world will brainlessly call for a ceasefire, complete with more pointless talks and soon-to-be-broken agreements. All the while, terrorists will be gleefully sharpening their knives in preparation for their next act of violence.

Consider the words of Afghan President Hamid Karzai…

"Terrorists are prepared to cross any boundaries and commit horrific acts of violence to try to derail Afghanistan from its path to success. They decapitate elderly women, blow up mosques full of worshipers and kill school-going children in indiscriminate bombings of civilian areas.” (BBC News)

We won’t win the war on terror unless we can find the will to be as ruthless as our enemies. Our recent failure to kill the 100 or so Taliban members who gathered at a funeral in Afghanistan is a perfect example of how misguided our efforts have been thus far. We should have blown them to bits, dealt with the bad press that certainly would have followed from Al Jazeera and our own leftist media, and moved on to the next target. Violence is the only language these animals understand. We won’t find safety until we speak it as eloquently as they do.

Sources and Related Reading:

• Sharia law (stoning in Niger)
•  
• The X-Rated Paradise of Islam
•  
• U.S. declines Taliban funeral target
•  
• Information About Islam, Muslims and the Taliban
•  
• Sharia in Kabul?
•  
• Afghan leader urges terror action
  

I don’t usually enter into the world of modern art. My sole qualification as an art critic is an oil painting by my mother hanging in the living room. Being one who deals with people all over the country via truck and laptop however, has allowed me to see Stupid in all of its various incarnations. Today I struck the mother lode.

We’ve all seen or heard of some of the more perverse forms of so-called art that go on display. Statues created from excrement, etc. But how’s about a woman who feels that she’s being artistic by lying around with a dead pig? That was a new one for me, and I’ve seen a lot.

British artist Kira O'Reilly’s current masterpiece, titled “Inthewrongplaceness” is essentially a peepshow. For a price, you can enter into a private room and watch Kira wallow naked with a dead pig for ten minutes. One viewer at a time. From all accounts, the pig isn’t just a prop. It’s a real pig. Dead.

This is one of those rare times when I’m in agreement with PETA. PETA released the following statement regarding Ms. O’Reilly:

"As Miss O'Reilly seems to have to depend on the shock value of using a murdered pig as a prop, perhaps lacking the talent to make it as a proper artist, may we suggest she take up a day job instead to pay the bills? Cruelty is not entertainment."

So… why would anyone wish to lie naked (or clothed) with a dead pig? Or a live one, for that matter? This isn’t art. This is a mental disorder. And no, don’t try to tell me that I lack the necessary sophistication to appreciate unusual art. This is the sort of stuff that high-brow lefties like to accuse us poor Southern hicks of doing. The woman is lying naked with a farm animal, okay? Bestiality and necrophilia all in one skinny little package.

If you require proof that Ms. O’Reilly is suffering from some form of dementia, I offer this little tidbit. It’s from the Tract Art Live website, which attributes the quote to her:

“The work left me with an undercurrent of pigginess, unexpected fantasies of mergence and interspecies metamorphoses began to flicker into my consciousness; making fiercely tender and ferocious identifications with the pig as stand in, double, twin, doll, imaginary self. Making fiercely tender and ferocious identifications with the pig as stand in, double, twin, doll, imaginary self.”

Someone close to Ms. O’Reilly should send for the Dudes In The White Suits to come and collect her, and take her to a nice safe place where she can recover. Padded walls come to mind. And no pets.

So, does our girl Kira kill a fresh pig for each exhibit, or does she keep one in the deep freeze and thaw it out in a really big microwave oven? Will she eventually eat the pig? Will she one day have an attack of guilty conscience over all those dead pigs? And if she does, will she start using live ones instead?

Frankly, these are questions of which I am afraid of the answers. Our world just keeps getting a little sicker each day. Call me a stuffy old right-winger, but this isn’t art. This is a sick ritual involving an innocent animal being sacrificed to the God of Human Depravity.

Art can take many forms, from paintings to music to woodworking and beyond. Sick displays of the nature of Ms. O’Reilly and her Dead Pig aren’t art. They’re a warning to all of us that the lines between acceptable and unacceptable conduct were drawn for a reason. Ms. O’Reilly is an example of what happens when those lines are not respected.

Related Reading:

Tract Live Art website with photo of Ms. O’Reilly and her pig

http://www.tract-liveart.co.uk/August.html

TCV article

http://www.theconservativevoice.com/ap/article.html?mi=D8JIVFPG0

Newlyn Art Gallery

http://www.newlynartgallery.co.uk/whatson/html/06081801.html

Excremental art
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1055980193705_222?hub=Entertainment

Alan Burkhart is a freelance writer, cross-country trucker, and proud citizen of the reddest of the Red States - Mississippi. You can reach him by visiting his website: www.alanburkhart.blogspot.com or by e-mail at alan@alanburkhart.com.

By Alan Burkhart

Score another victory for Radical Islam and their partners at the ACLU. And chalk up another loss for American citizens. We’ve been rendered blind and deaf in a time when we desperately need to be vigilant. The recent plot uncovered by British MI5 agents to blow up commercial airliners is proof of the need for operations like the NSA Foreign Surveillance Program. And yet the left continues to tie the hands of those who are trying to lead the fight against international terrorism.

US District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor has ruled that the NSA’s Foreign Surveillance Program is unconstitutional. I find it cruelly ironic that the judge who struck the latest blow for radical Islam is an appointee of Jimmy Carter, who has been one of their greatest facilitators over the years. Judge Taylor also ordered that the program be suspended during appeals to be filed by the Justice Department, but that at least has been defeated. The program will continue through September Seventh, at which time there will be a hearing to allow the government to request a lengthier stay.

Osama bin Laden must be laughing himself silly right about now. And all the while he’s planning his next attack, which he recently promised would be quite   impressive. By now he doubtlessly realizes that his greatest allies aren’t in Saudi Arabia or Iran, but right here in the USA.

The Mainstream Media has long mischaracterized the NSA program, referring to it as a “Domestic Spying Program” and an “Eavesdropping Program.” It is neither of these. All the program does is track phone numbers during international calls. If an international call is made and involves a number suspected of being used by a terrorist operative here or abroad, then further action is taken. Why would anyone have a problem with that? Big Brother isn’t listening to your conversations with Aunt Mable. They don’t care about how you order pizza. The Federal Government is trying its level best to prevent another 911-style attack on our soil, and yet the ACLU and other leftist groups seem almost eager for it to happen. And when it does, they’ll blame the Bush Administration for that, too.

Judge Taylor’s decision isn’t about protecting our constitutional rights. It’s about putting the Left back in power. The Left doesn’t care if another airliner smashes into another hi-rise. What they care about is getting back to the business of creating a socialist utopia in the USA. If that means making life easier for a pack of religious fanatics, so be it. Rank and file citizens killed in another attack would be considered nothing more than collateral damage. If you doubt me on this one, just take an unbiased look at what they’ve done over the last few years. Judge them on what they do, not what they say.

Perhaps when the next attack occurs, and thousands of innocent people perish, Americans will finally wake up to the fact that we’re at war. Not just in Iraq or Afghanistan, but with a global network of zealots who won’t stop until we either eradicate them from the planet, or they destroy Western Culture and replace it with Islamic rule. It really is just that simple. It’s them or us.

Pick one.

Related Reading:

Federal judge orders halt to NSA spy program

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1035_22-6106772.html?tag=nl.e589

Text of Judge Taylor’s ruling (PDF format)

http://www.mied.uscourts.gov/eGov/taylorpdf/06%2010204.pdf

NSA eavesdropping program ruled unconstitutional

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/08/17/domesticspying.lawsuit.ap/index.html

Alan Burkhart is a freelance writer, cross-country trucker, and proud citizen of the reddest of the Red States - Mississippi. You can reach him by visiting his website: www.alanburkhart.blogspot.com or by e-mail at alan@alanburkhart.com.

Recent events in Israel and Lebanon should be the final nail in the coffin for Middle Eastern diplomacy. Is there anyone left in the world besides Kofi Annan who believes in the possibility of peace through treaties and diplomacy where Radical Islam is involved?
 
In the quest for a peaceful existence, Israel has done just about everything the world has asked her to do. She's given up huge pieces of land to Palestine and showed admirable restraint in the face of aggression from Hamas and Hezbollah. Israel has openly embraced the notion of a Palestinian state as long as the attacks from Palestinian terrorists stop for all time. What has Israel gained from her sacrifices?
 
Nothing but more aggression from those who wish to see her wiped from the face of the Earth.
 
What we must understand is that Radical Islam has no intention of honoring any agreements it makes with Israel - or for that matter, any other non-Muslim nation. Gaining concessions from Israel, especially in the form of land, is simply another method of chipping away at Israel's existence. They don't see Israel's many concessions any differently than if they'd gained the land through violence.
 
And yet the United Nations still expects Israel to show restraint after this most recent aggression by Hezbollah. Kofi Annan still wants to declare a cease fire even though the blue-helmeted UN peace keepers are for the most part as corrupt and inept as Kofi himself. And don't forget that Russia and China are members of the UN. Where'd Hezbollah get those missiles it's firing out of Lebanon? If you guessed "Iran," give yourself a gold star. Both Russia and China have been instrumental in Iran's development of advanced weaponry. And Hezbollah is little more than a puppet of Iran.
 
It is failed diplomacy that has placed Israel in its current predicament. It is failed diplomacy that has led to the deaths of thousands of innocent Israeli citizens over the years.
 
Why have all diplomatic efforts failed to win a peace for Israel?
 
Diplomacy only works when all parties involved desire peace. Radical Islam seeks the destruction of Israel and the United States, and the subjugation of the entire planet. Radical Islam will never honor any agreement with a non-Muslim nation, and it is complete idiocy to believe otherwise.  These are people who believe they are on a mission from Allah to create a worldwide Muslim state. 
 
So… how can we deal with them?
 
It is unfortunate that there is only one way to deal with Muslim extremists. We have seen the results of attempting to appease them. Radical Islam sees any attempt at a diplomatic solution as a sign of weakness. They will not honor a cease fire agreement. They will break any and all treaties. UN resolutions are as meaningless to them as the UN itself.
 
At the risk of sounding like a bit of an extremist myself, I'll be the one to say what most civilized people are already thinking, though it pains them (and me) to do so…

"The only good terrorist is a dead terrorist. Kill them all, and let Allah sort them out."
 
 As long as even one radical Muslim cleric still lives, as long as even one Islamic extremist still plots to kill, none of us are safe - not even the millions of peaceful Muslims who play no part in the Global Jihad. The sooner the appeasers of the world face this unpleasant fact, the sooner we can eradicate an implacable evil from our world.

"We know Bush is the enemy of God, the enemy of Islam and the enemy of the Moslem people. America has declared war against God, [Israeli Prime Minister] Sharon declared war against God, and God has declared war against America, Bush and Sharon."
Abdel Aziz Rantisi (1947 - 2004) - co-Founder of Hamas

Related Reading:
About Hamas
http://www.cfr.org/publication/8968/

About Abdel Aziz Rantisi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abd_Al-Aziz_Rantisi

About Hezbollah
http://www.cfr.org/publication/9155/

Iran's Involvement in the Israel / Lebanon Crisis
http://www.cfr.org/publication/11125/iran_and_syria_exploit_crisis.html

Alan Burkhart is a freelance political writer, cross-country trucker, and proud citizen of the reddest of the Red States - Mississippi. You can reach him via e-mail at: alan@alanburkhart.com or by visiting his website: www.alanburkhart.com.