Ridiculous... arafat has NOT been humiliated... he humiliates HIMSELF. Israel pointing out he is a liar, killer and brutal oppressor of his own people... may SEEM like they are rubbing our faces in it... but ONLY IN a nutty arab nation, could telling the truth be considered a "Humiliation".
There is far more power in just one aircraft carrier, than there is in the entire ARAB STREET put together. Our firepower, should we choose to go "all the way" is absolutely irresistable. Period.
Should we choose to to, there would be NO ARAB STREET, per se, fifteen minutes from now. NONE.
Yes the outcry would be mournful, NO the land would NOT be useable for a long time, and YES we would be wrong to go that far... the issue is WE COULD, WE CAN and if it comes down to us facing another 9-11 or killing them all, along with the innocents, like we did in our war with Japan... don't think for ONE second we would NOT do whatever it takes. WE will take any action, go anywhere and pay ANY PRICE to see that freedom will be upheld.
The "doubt" that arabs have regarding our willingness or capacity to do whatever it takes, and wipe them out, will be their undoing. They fail to realize that between where we are in our war effort and total annihilation, are hundreds of steps, degrees, and levels of EFFECTIVE and VERY SAFE methods we have of wiping out their ability to defend themselves at all, even against an army of depends-wearing, little old blue-haired ladies.
Ultimately EVERY city of the ARAB world is nothing to our military commanders, in an all out war, than a set of geo coordinates on a map. Push a button... 900 thousand cease to exist. Push another button, THREE specific people are taken, while the ones right next to them, are left... more or less.
We don't because of our CHRISTIAN morality of as a nation, demands that we protect life as much as we can whilst defending our selves and our allies. Arabs who count on this as a weakness to be exploited, in the face of their increased levels of terrorist activity, are in the process of humiliating themselves. WE WILL DESTROY THE THEM. Period.
Easy or hard, nice or not nice... or anything in between, they will be hunted down, smoked out, and destroyed, utterly. We will do it in our own way, and consistent with our own convenience. Israel has helped us immensely by taking out much of the threat internally, so as not to impede our killing of the hydra in Iraq and OTHER PLACES not yet known to be "on the list".
Iraq may just be, the new autonomous palestinian nation, or not. Don't be afraid of the arabs. They are only as much of a problem as our logistics situations allow them to be, on a case by case basis. Obstacles will be overcome. WE will assert ourselves. They will humiliate themselves. It is the nature of inferior cultures to do stupid things. Arabic culture is stupid. Only Turkey so far has seen this and repressed it islamic hordes... and brought some level of hope to its people. Other islamic/arab nations will have to follow the wise choices of the turks, if they are to enjoy existence in the next millenia.
Interesting observation. I'd noticed that when dealing with Arabs, there is often less than meets the eye. Subtlety and finesse aren't in their playbook. Unsophisticated and brutish, they respect only raw force.