Time Will Tell

As we wind up the eight years of the Bush Presidency, it seems to me to be fitting to pause to consider the state we find our selves in, and perhaps contemplate how we got here, and to consider where we may go from here.

In the twenty years preceding the Bush 43 Presidency, American 'soft' targets were repeatedly attacked around the world. The Marine Barracks in Beruit, a night club in Germany filled with American soldiers, Embassies in serveral countries, the World Trade Center, and more. In each case, our government responded with a measured retaliation in kind of some sort, occasionally a criminal prosecution. "A Low grade conflict" is a term that may apply to this state. A state where Americans around the world are routinely killed, and our government retaliates. While that response may make sense to the State Department, and to the White House, to those who lost family and friends, it didn't bring loved ones back to life. Finally, the massacre of the Rangers in Somolia, and our government's reaction to it, encouraged the organizers of Radical Islam. They realized that if you bleed the Americans, they will run away.

So, they resolved to bled us some more. They attacked the World Trade Center, and the Pentagon. The third plane went down in Pennslyvania. Radical Islam thought that since we ran away when we lost Rangers in Somolia, we would cower when we lost thousands on our own soil. They thought that it would be the begining of a great period for Radical Islam. But this time, instead of killing a few camels, and knocking down a few huts somewhere with million dollar cruise missiles, we responded with overwhelming force. We have again bled, but they have bled more.

In the eight years since 9/11, not one American 'soft' target has been attacked.

So today, as we prepare to hand over to a new administration a quiet Iraq, and hot war in Afganistan, the question that the remaining elements of Radical Islam are asking themselves is this....If we bleed them, will they run? The test is coming.

We know what happens when we run, and we know what happens when we fight. The question is, does our new administration recognize and understand this.

Only time will tell.