I’m sorry to say that I’m not completely sure you’re kidding with that. You are, right?

Been there, done that! Georgie Patton and the United States 3d Army paid the region a little visit, in yesteryear.

Meine Mutter ist eine Oesterreicherin, und wir sind nie ernst.

I was just rereading a book on the Luftwaffe, and one of the authors mentioned how many of their top aces were Austrian. He speculated that the characteristics of the Austrian culture lent themselves well to the artistry of aerial combat.

But JK, it’s difficult to fault the Austrian government for acting on the party line that has often been repeated by our OWN government, namely, that the Iranian government HASN’T been assisting the various insurgent forces within Iraq. So if you’re irritated at the Austrians, they’re simply acting on the various pronouncements by Rice, Rumsfeld, Pace and the President.

It’s sad that we expect so little of our own government, but bristle when another government arms our enemies.

Before insisting on political, moral and strategic clarity in Austria, we should insist on a similar clarity in Washington, in New York City, in the Pentagon, in Langley, in Foggy Bottom and in the White House.

Had Bush demonstrated CLARITY ab initio, we wouldn’t be in this mess now.

What do I mean by strategic clarity? George Walker Bush allowed a war that should have been about destroying jihadist supporting STATES, {such as Syria, such as Afghanistan, such as Iraq and most importantly Iran}, President Bush allowed that war effort to devolve into a mission of civilizing savages, of bringing Western governance to the heart of the ancient caliphate.

So George Walker Bush hitched the success of the American war effort to our ability to accomplish what hadn’t been attempted, let alone accomplished throughout the length and breath of islam.

The articles all report that there were British and American protests, blown off by my Austrian compatriots, at the time of the sale.

I’ve said in another thread that the complexities of Iranian domestic politics do pose a challenge, but that’s as much as I’m willing to say right now.

The complexities of internal Iranian politics are an irrelevancy. History isn’t going to be interested in the various reasons why Western "leaders" allowed themselves to be paralyzed before the enormity of the Iranian threat.

Fifty years from now, after the avalanche of conventional terror attacks, after the decades of nuclear intimidation, after the further radicalization of the Mideast, of islam, after the price of crude is pushed beyond 125 bucks per barrel and after a nuclear exchange, such concerns, such "complexities" will appear as important as the various "peaceful" gambits that Hitler frequently strew throughout his speeches.

Churchill damned such things at the time as "humbug for those willing to be humbugged." Concerns about Iranian politics, {which seems to imply that there really is a political discourse occurring in Iran...when there ISN’T} are nothing more than an excuse to dodge fundamental decisions.

Diplomacy and "economic engagement" isn’t going to forestall the nightmare that looms before us.

But our F-15E Strike Eagles sure could.

It’s time to unleash on the Iranian regime, it’s time to unload, it’s time to settle ALL outstanding scores. It’s LONG past time!

Austria deserves a stinging diplomatic SLAP for this. Say, a sudden denial of work visas for visiting musicians, or a bizarre tariff on Austrian goods. Those probably are bad ideas, but W. and Congress need to do something to show that it PISSES US OFF when you lend a hand to kill our boys.

And it needs to be something painful.

Carl, you’ve got the wrong focus. The problem isn’t Austria supplying our muslim enemies. The problem is that the White House ALLOWS states like Iran and Syria to continue to exist at all. Those regimes should have been obliterated within about 9 months of 9/11. Then Austria wouldn’t be able to swing an arms deal with the mullahs, for the mullahs would be in the throes of a power struggle within Iran.

Crush the enemy. Do it now. For your window is closing America. Shelve this idea of a "long war," cashier the idea of a "decades long cold war" with the forces of satanic jihadism. Every muslim state that sponsors, supports and sustains muslim mayhem declare war on, and crush.

End the islamic dispensation, whereby they get to create death and destruction over vast areas of the world, and nobody calls them on it.

The United States, the leader of the free world, the champion in arms of the free West needs to deliver a tutorial to islam. The reason we’re still having problems is because that tutorial hasn’t been delivered. Muslims aren’t very much different than Germans, Japanese and Italians. If you hammer them, their behavior will change. We haven’t hammered them, so they’re up to the usual, rape, slicing throats, shattering skulls, blowing up kids, blowing up mothers with kids, etc....

Isn’t it time for all of that evil crap to come to an end.

Remember when Lincoln said that America couldn’t continue to exist "half slave, half free." I’m beginning to think that the world as we know it can’t continue to exist "half shariaa, half free."

It’s time for a reckoning with islam/jihad.

Dan, you’ve got a good point w/ comment five. At this point, we know it’s probably not due to any clever "speak softly" strategy by W. Sigh.

As for these last two comments, I strongly disagree for more reasons than I can go into. Nations w/ god-like technological powers cannot and must not fool themselves that they can act like gods. They should defend themselves vigorously, but wise and just nations do not employ verbs like "crush" and "end" when the direct objects are "nation" or "religion."

Dan is right, however, on this simple fact: lots of Muslims acting upon a fairly or nearly orthodox interp of Islam have produced and are producing "death and destruction over vast areas of the world." Few students of Indian, African, or Byzantine history would be surprised, but it is shocking the extent to which this simply occurs on a day-to-day basis with little attention from the world MSM outlets. A site NLTers should know about is called the religion of peace and it documents, rather carefully, that almost 7,500 deadly (as in, at least one person was killed) attacks-committed-in-the-name-of-Islam have occured simply since 9/11 !!! Some of those attacks are regional tit-for-tat with Islamic window-dressing, and some of you will be inclined to blame the Iraq attacks on our getting rid of Saddam, but scroll on down through the list(s)of attacks and soak up the reality.

The North crushed the South.

We crushed the Japanese during the Second World War.

We also crushed Germany and Italy during that war.

But notice that we DIDN’T crush the foremost Central Power during the Great War, and that’s why Black Jack Pershing and Marshal Foch said that the Versailles Treaty wasn’t peace, that it was nothing but an armistice for 20 years.

We’re allowing our enemies to trifle with us. We’re allowing them to think they can hang and bang with the foremost power on earth.

That’s not a recipe for success.

Query, is islam a platform for Arab supremacism? I don’t know. I’ve read a good deal about islam, but I don’t know whether or not it’s a platform for Arab supremacism. But there are some who suggest that it is. If you take a look at the world, most of the problems we’re having of late flow from the heart of islam, which is the Arab heartland. They’re the ones behind much of it, indirectly through their cash, when they’re not actually taking a direct hand in it.

Lastly, it must be understood too, that no group like Hezbollah or Hamas could possibly exist absent state support. LOTS OF STATE SUPPORT. Terrorism without state support remains a local matter. But once it receives state support, that’s when it becomes a global menace.

Remember Baader/Meinhoff, remember the various Red Army Factions in Europe, they had state support from the Warsaw Bloc. Even the IRA received state support from Arab powers, such as Libya’s Khaddaffi.

The answer then to muslim terror must encompass the destruction of those muslim regimes that support such terror.

Anne Applebaum wrote a piece today that said that going after Iran was unrealistic. If her attitude gains currency and becomes policy writ, then you can kiss any chances for victory we have goodbye.

The new government we’re trying to establish in Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon will not be able to stand up under the pressure, the propaganda, the blood, the violence oozing out of Tehran. Those governments will be swept away by a tidal rip tide of mayhem.

This too is another area where our policy people have made a fundamental mistake. Iran has NO vested interest in regional stability. None whatsoever. Their power is ADVANCED, HEIGHTENED AND INTENSIFIED the more the region becomes soaked in blood.

I have no happy ending to offer any. I can only point out to you the wisdom of the generations, the hard won knowledge of countless multitudes.

There will be no substitute for victory in this conflict, as there isn’t any substitute for victory in any other.

Take a look at the Korean situation. Because we failed to take care of business then, look at the hazards we’re courting now. Because Truman disdained the sound advice of MacArthur, his successor in office, George Walker Bush is forced to put a happy face on a profoundly flawed "agreement."

Dan, yeah I saw the Applebaum piece and was dissappointed also. Expected better from her. She makes some important points, and I’m not a "faster, please" Ledeenian, but she doesn’t take the strategy of "air-strike, bargain, air-strike again" seriously enough. So what if we can’t take out all the facilities at once...she’s unaware that we could at least bury under massive rubble the entrance of every facility we know of. A massively delayed Iranian nuclear program, and an embarrassed Iranian regime--that’s the kind of "kicking the can down the road" I can live with. Now that even the EU is forced to admit that Iran is proceeding toward nukes and have spurned/dragged-out all avenues of negociation, its time for ADULTS to stop going on about the essentially irrelevant, because its only relevant if we make it so, "lack of confidence" in Bush when it comes to Iran. If the Iranians nuke the Israelis or our troops in the next five years, no-one in the West will be more blamed for it than W., and low poll numbers will be no excuse for his irresponsibility. Shame on those who encourage such irresponsibility, and that of the next president, in the name of "there is no good (i.e., perfect) solution." These repeated counsels of "That mack truck is still driving straight at us, but once again we see there’s no acceptable way to stop it," are just astounding.

That said, Dan, on your broader call to arms, there are such stubborn realities as U.S. public opinion, the U.S. need for allies, Islam being a world-wide religion that isn’t going away and certainly cannot be made to, etc.

Carl,

Thanks for taking up the (virtual and metaphorical) cudgels here. I frankly don’t know what the proper military response is, though I want to see the Iranians pay a price for their deadly meddling. What I worry about is the extent to which the kinds of episodic airstrikes to which we’re likely to resort will have the effect of actually strengthening the bad guys in Tehran.

"Episodic airstrikes" is precisely the method to avoid. That only confirms the widespread view that the forces of islam can hang and bang with the United States. That would be to repeat the errors of Operation Rolling Thunder. If you recall, during LBJ’s stewardship of the Vietnam war, B-52s were used for targets in South Vietnam, whereas our fighter/bombers, {F-100s, A-4s, F-4s} were used for signal sending strikes in North Vietnam. So what we had was reversal of doctrine, whereas STRATEGIC assets such as B-52s were used for tactical purposes, but TACTICAL aircraft, our fighter bombers, were used to hit STRATEGIC sites.

You don’t want to repeat the errors of Rolling Thunder. If you conclude that airstrikes are the way, then those strikes should be modeled on Operation Linebacker, and Linebacker II, {the later more popularly known as the Christmas bombings}.

Certain things must be grasped before any military measure be chosen:

1} The REGIME is the problem, their Manhattan Project is but a symptom of the problem, along with their support for terror;

2} Are you trying to purchase more time for other policies to prove availing, such as the Iraqi gambit, such as diplomatic moves and economic incentives, OR are you determined to bring down the regime.

I’m not interested in purchasing time. Our State Department hasn’t made good use of the time they’ve had heretofore, with North Korea for instance, so there is absolutely NO reason to believe that they will make better use of the time hereinafter. So given that our State Department is incompetent, and given that our CIA doesn’t have any human assets in Iran, and what’s more, isn’t likely to acquire one anytime soon, because they too are incompetent, so given that, it’s probably better that we ask the Pentagon to remove that regime from the face of the earth.

Dan, this is the late Roman Empire. Nothing of that sort will be possible...we can’t act like the old Roman Legions...our own people just won’t tolerate it (the fools). Let’s rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic and see to our own...ultimately that’s about all that can be done. The people themselves are corrupted.

There is no reason to judge what can be done through the prism of what this unimaginative administration is capable of doing. America’s potential extends far beyond the pusillanimousness of this Bush administration. America’s resourcefulness is literally and figuratively limitless. The only limits that exist are those that we allow ourselves to think exist.

Every single day sees some new horror displayed on the news. And that means every single day some other American has gotten fed up with what’s going on out there, what’s being allowed to go on out there.

Even the listless Europeans are beginning to bestir themselves to the nightmarish presence of tens of millions of muslims in their midst. So if even they can begin to snap out of it, I’ve no doubt that Americans will rouse themselves much sooner.

George Bush hasn’t a clue. He doesn’t know what he’s doing, his personnel selections have been appalling. Utterly appalling.

But there is far more to America, to the United States of America, then the idiocy of the Bush administration. American Exceptionalism isn’t dead. More Americans know that this dear country is truly the last, best hope, then deem otherwise.

This political correctness is going to collapse into utter incoherence, and will be damned, and it’s going to happen much sooner than many expect.

And that means that all that I’ve been saying is simply AHEAD OF THE CURVE, not behind it. It’s the politically correct, the pacifist, the multicultural, the fetishistic, legal proceduralist that are behind the times, not me.

Just you wait and see.......

Wish I could share you optimism, but social/cultural inertia is a powerful thing. Too many vested interests, too much decadence, not enough real adversity. The frog is sitting in tepid water, but it’ll be boiling before he realizes what’s up.