It seems that it is a lose - lose deal no matter what Bush does?
To drive our enemies before us, slaughter their warriors and hear the lamentations of their women.
Waging a long, sustained war on terrorists while keeping the Middle East together enough to actually be of some use to us. A war in the Middle East won't help our cause.
IMHO, It would be best for America to be assertive in its foreign policy. We should give the Arab countries two reasons to oppose terrorism:
1. It is morally right.
2. We intend to make life worse for our enemies than for our friends.
If they come back to us and say that we have to promise to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict first, we should reject that demand. The two reasons are good enough.
Yasser Arafat is a master at talking out of both sides of his mouth--announcing cease-fires in English while encouraging the terrorists in Arabic. The "moderate" Arab states will play the same game with us if we let them.
At the height of British appeasement in the 1930's, Churchill remarked that England had to choose between war and dishonor. "We chose dishonor. We shall have war."
To sacrifice Israel to the Palestinian terrorists would be to go down the same path.
We don't know all there is to know, but we should just keep having faith in Bush. He WILL do what's best for America. I have total confidence in him. Of course, I'm a shameless Bushie, but time will prove us Bushies right.
GO GWB, GO!
GandtheD
America should stay away from any obsessive collectivist tendency. That means staying away from collectively getting Israel shared by all religions, just as socialists want pain and wealth to be shared by all. Some people are decent and can be in Israel, others not, period. And as far as Islam, a moment of truth is coming, Islam is evil. The Islamic world will never rest until all churches and Synagogues in the world are laid to waste as they are being laid to waste in the Islamic world today through terror, especialy in those so called moderate states such as Saudi Arabia.
What is best for the US at this point in time, while attacked, is to go on a burned Earth policy. Contract, let the barbarians attack burned dirt, fake them into thinking Israel is worthless, in the meantime build up weapons and a strategy of counter attack and WWIII scenario (global war is more PC lately).
What is best for America is to have a Lincoln who will take freedoms of citizens and the world away, fight the war against the evil doers with the citizens forcibly enlisted, and then give back the usage of peace time constitution and civil rights to the people, JUST AS LINCOLN DID.