US Must Stand Firm Against Arab "Anger"
Reader comment on item: Lost Diplomats Just Step on the Gas

Submitted by Stephen A. Volk (United States), May 8, 2002 at 22:57

This piece demonstrates great analysis of the situation and what might work to curb the violence - standing up to terror! Too bad that Powell and the State Department don't "get it." They continue to push Israel to try "one more time", again and again, to placate the terrorists (who kill Israelis) because they hope that those who are filled with hate can somehow become good neighbors, that those who could order their soldiers to deliberately go into a school in Maalot and murder children, or send their hired thugs to hijack a cruise ship and throw a wheel chair-bound old man into the sea, somehow can now run a responsible, open, government. We were cowed by reports of anger in the "Arab street." What Powell and the State Departmentl don't understand is that the failure of the US to show resolve in backing Israel is only going to embolden Hizbollah, Hamas, Syria, and Iraq to initiate a wider war. If we back down now, as we did after our marines and two embassies were attacked in Lebanon, militant Islam will see us as weak and we in the US again will be a target; and our friend, Israel, will be seen as alone and vulnerable and ripe for attack.

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