B: Thanks for that information. You are right. I hope, however, you agree with the point--a strong US Navy was critical to our security. And the Navy did its job re: the Barbary coast and proved Jefferson and others correct whoa rgued for a strong Navy early in our country's history. All the best, Peter Huessy

"Cutting off the head of the snake"...can be done economically (unplg their economies from the world especially the banking system) or with minimal use of cruise missiles and JDAMS, blockade (as was suggested during 2008 campaign). If these threats are serious, then we should also be serious. These people have already declared war on US! Go back to th Pueblo or the embassy seizure. Oh, I forgot, there was this Korean war thing. And these criminals in Pyongyang killed by Korean family father in Burma in 1983 who was a member of the ROK cabinet and my techer at Yonsei University. Of course, if there is no threat, then come home, withdraw, establish diplomatic relations, and sing "can't we all get along" (Rodney King) or Kumbayah just to celebrate. As I wrote September 11, 2001 in an oped in Investors Business Daily: "It is Time to Get Serious , America". Indeed.

Iran is maing war on the sovereign governments of Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon, as well as Israel. Their proxies are armed, trained and financed by Tehran to kill fellow Moslems, US soldiers and coalition partners. Previous documents showeed Iran working to undertake a coup in a number of Persian Gulf and North African nations. Iran was responsible for Lockerbie and Beirut, among other murderous attacks. Whether "invasion" by terrorist proxy meets your definition of aggression is of course your choice. Liberating 50 million people from the horrors of Saddam and the Taliban---what would you call it? Especially in that the Taliban sponsored the attacks on the US on 9/11; Saddam was behind at least the 1993 WTC attacks and others. We were protecting our nation's security. There is something in the Constitution; it says "Provide for the Common Defense".

Being unable to answer simple questions leaves you hurling insults. If all Moslems are by their very nature out to conquer the world, what is your policy prescription? Ban Islam from being practiced? Ban anyone with a Muslim background from immigrating to the US? What about those here already, legally? Your policy analysis brings you into an untenable cul de sac from which you cannot extract your self and thus you are left without a policy that either makes sense or is sellable to the American people. Should we ban Sharia law practices? Yes, but the recent court decision re: Oklahoma shows that is not going to be easy. Again, you have no solutions.

Being unable to answer simple questions leaves you hurling insults. If all Moslems are by their very nature out to conquer the world, what is your policy prescription? Ban Islam from being practiced? Ban anyone with a Muslim background from immigrating to the US? What about those here already, legally? Your policy analysis brings you into an untenable cul de sac from which you cannot extract your self and thus you are left without a policy that either makes sense or is sellable to the American people. Should we ban Sharia law practices? Yes, but the recent court decision re: Oklahoma shows that is not going to be easy. Again, you have no solutions.

I will try and answer your concerns. (1)Saddam was attacking us from Iraq as were the Taliban in Afghanistan. In the absence of doing anything about either country from 1992-2001, they both either gave sanctuary to terrorists or armed themselves, attacked us with impunity, while Iran built missiles and nuclear weapons. Saddam nearly had nuclear weapons circa 1991 when we liberated Kuwait.
(2)What would you like to do? Nuke all Moslems? They do not wear name tags that tell us which ones share the monstrous ideology and which ones do not. They are not all out to conquer the world. Those jihadis in a mosque or a madrassa, they do not have nuclear weapons; they can be pirates but that does not threaten our civilization;
(3)But they can get them from states which are using the jihadis as recruits to do their dirty work. Though these jihadis can live in states that are broken, such as Somalia, they have the accruements of power which can eliminate. Iran will probably create a IRGC cell for the purpose of taking a nuke into an American city.
(4)I never said terror groups or individual terrorists were the gravest threat. It is states armed with nuclear and biological weapons that wish to destroy us and these include Russia and China whom we see as friends. They are not. But they use terror groups to attack us and weaken our friends and allies.
(5) Now Muslims do through intimidation and violence take over swaths of land in such countries as France where there are thousands of no go zones. Do you think they will actually succeed here in the USA with Bubba and his pickup, gun and dog? It will not be a fair fight. What they want to do is totally unconstitutional by and large and they can be defeated in the courts and by outlawing sharia as Oklahoma seeks to do.
(6)And I have never bought on to the nation building, win hearts and minds deal; so stop accusing me of so believing.
(7)If you want to go fight 1.3 billion Muslims go right ahead. Few Muslims out of the 1.3 billion actually believe what Islam asks them to do—kill all those who do not believe including fellow Muslims; see Shia and Wahhabi.
(8)In Iraq Sharia is not always followed --women work, go to school and in fact more of them are in the Iraqi parliament than there are women in our current US Congress as a percent of the total membership.
(9)Will Islam go through a reformation? I do not know. But they have not conquered the world and we have the tools to stop those nations that are seized with the view they have the right to kill all in their way such as Iran.
(10)But Syria? You have to be kidding if you think Assad is motivated by Islam. It is power he craves. That we can take away from him if we have the balls. Do we? We will see…
(11).Is Islam totalitarian? Yes. Was Nazism? Yes. Did we kill every Nazi? No we took away the instruments of Nazi power and eliminated the big cheese himself, but that was after the war was nearly over and he did us the favor by killing himself. I am on your side yet you are seized with a very simple view of Islamic people which will get you nowhere.

You are absolutely right that Russia and China are pursuing and have been pursuing an agenda anti-thetical to US interests. The new House understands this much better than the current House membership and hopefully we will see that reflected in the next year's budget and policy deliberations. However, as you no doubt know, it is not easy to drive US security policy from the Hill, but we are obligated by our oath to "provide for the common defense".

Sir: Not every country that has a Muslim majority is pursuing a foreign policy antithetical to US interests; neither Iraq or Afghanistan need to be our adversaries. As long as they are not active supporters of terrorism and terror groups wihtin their borders, and to the extent they actively oppose state sponsorship of terrorism, we are better off. Stopping the Iranian missile and nuclear programs will not suddenly be easir with an Iranian type state in either of these two nations. I am fully aware of the nature of Islam and of Sharia law. Unless you have a means of walling off all countries within the Islamic world, we have to deal with them, admittedly most as they are; we found Afghanistan and Iraq key state sponsors of terror and that is why we took down these regimes; "democracy" building is not our job and I have never claimed that it should be. The Iraqis and Afghanis will respect the "strong horse". That is what America must be.

Remember as I am sure you do, Moscow created most of the terror groups now existing--Abbas, plus the Supreme Leader in Iran, plus Arafat , KS Muhammed and Che all went to school at the KGB run Patrice Lumamba University in Russia! I am on your side just asking for a slight but important modification of the strategy to fight our common foe. rue, Moslems do not conveniently wear badges identifying those who fight and support "jihad" and those who want nothing to do with it. And we will not turn 1.2 billion people away from their faith---remember there are plenty of "commies" left but the key source of their weapons, financing, training etc is gone--tragically, yes, in Cuba, Venezuela, and Russia (and here in the USA!) there remain those commiitted still to its totalitarian aims. All the best, Peter Huessy

I know the MB folks have called for using our own constitutional protections to undermine and eventually destroy us. We simply have to prevent this and stop the mother's in their tracks. An easy job? Of course not. While Reagan spoke mightily against the "theology" of communism, we also made war against the entire empire, especially economically, politically and militarily. I highly recommend Norquist's piece from 2001 from the National Intelligenser, (yes this ironically is Grover's father)--but it is the best peice ever done on how we made war against Moscow from the Reagan administration--he nails it in every respect.