There was a time when everyone knew who the enemy was. My father and uncles fought in World War II and they knew who the bad guys were. They also knew that they, as individuals, and we, as a nation, had to sacrifice many things and many comforts in order to do what had to be done in order to end that savage war. Today? We are so confused and politically correct that we sound like something out of a George Orwell novel. Nowadays, the new mantras are 'Love is Hate' and 'Peace is War'. Here, in Los Angeles, we are so spoiled and lazy that we consider not being able to cook out on a cloudy day or having to put the top down on the convertible a sacrifice.



The Los Angeles Times, whose anti-Semitic rhetoric I usually try to avoid by not reading, has regular headlines heralding how we are actually winning in Iraq and that 'they' are going to have a wonderful democracy and love us all. Anyway, that is my paraphrasing. They have yet to print a picture of our soldiers, some of whom are dying for those same citizens who are 'going to love us'. Meanwhile, 'they' are breaking our economy. I do not know too many of you who are reading this who actually give a diddlysquat whether 'they' are happy or not. These people have never, in thousands of years, had a democracy, nor do they want one. Their entire religion and culture is based on submission as well as domination of others.



We, however, do care deeply about the nosedive that our economy is going into because of this open-ended war on terrorism. Untold billions are going into the rebuilding of those countries whose home-grown and imported terrorists hate everything we are and want to kill us. Meanwhile, 'they' are streaming across our borders much like an oozing, open wound. Our budgets are strained to the max and our president does not seem to have a clue as to what is happening. In fact, it is mind-boggling that the only issue over which he will exercise his power of veto is to stop the only one that's contains potential promise - stem cell research.



This same type of clueless mentality is what is supposed to be leading the Israelis down the path of peace. The list of our political fiascos is massive and it is like the elephant in the room. Nobody is seeing it. Worse, Israel's leaders are blindly following our bad leadership down this road to a terrorist state. How fast George Bush forgot the idea of waiting for a Palestinian leadership untainted by violence and free of corruption before any talk of 'Palestinian' statehood. Now, he is giving orders that the Palestinians must approve any territory Israel retains beyond the 1949 Armistice Lines. Gawd, he is even supporting bringing the terrorist group Hamas into the political dialogue. And Israel listens to him! When are they going to realize that US interests are more in line with supporting the Arab nations than the Jewish state?



We have lost our virginity. I think that there were folks out there who really believed our president, George W, that, in addition to the non-weapons of mass destruction in Saddam's trick bag, we were going to be using the richest oil wells in the world. The ones we now have control over. So, why are we paying over three dollars a gallon? That was going to repay our country for the destruction our enemies have caused. Silly us. We believed many things, none of which have come true.



We, in America, are so used to living in the realm of sound bites that reality has become elusive. The headlines state, "Bush Happy with Iraq", "Investigations lend insight into enemy's changing tactics", or "US Death Toll on the Rise". Frankly, I'm not surprised, but I predicted this from the beginning. Do you really care that Bush is happy with anything? While he was going about winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people, I was writing that this war isn't about anything more than 'pay back' time for his daddy - and it was a very expensive effort with a price tag we'll be paying for decades to come.



While our army is over there searching rubble, looking for body parts such as hands, so that they can fingerprint bombers, the carnage from these savages goes on and on and on. Does it matter that they learn the identity of a particular bomber? Instead of identifying the bomber, maybe it is time to identify the mentality of the enemy that we are fighting.



Because, folks, our country doesn't have a clue as to the psyche of the Muslims who are marching over the hill. Theirs is a crusade whose purpose is to kill anyone in their sight who doesn't share the same seventh-century mentality that they wallow in. Where are their brothers, who number 1.3 billion, who are speaking out, saying it is evil and maybe a little bit dysfunctional to behead people? Our armed forces are forming teams to "speed up and improve the analysis of the bombers" and "collecting evidence in effort to better understand the workings of the bombers and the identities and possible affiliations of the insurgents who use them." While this is going on, they are multiplying and spreading out like roaches.



First, stop calling them 'insurgents' and 'militants'. They are murderers and terrorists who have no regard for life; most of them have the IQ of an eggplant; and all they know is to be a killing machine. While we are wasting time trying to win their hearts and minds and promote democracy, they are forming terror cells to kill all non-Muslims throughout the world.



They may be primitive and savage, but the enemy is cunning and apparently cleverer than we have understood so far. They are mastering the art of picking off other non-Muslim nations, one at a time. Spain is already defeated. Islam snapped its fingers, bombed their trains and now, anything Islam wants done, Spain will do. France is already 20% Muslim and on it is way to being history. Eurabia is becoming a reality, even as Europeans do and say nothing for themselves about the cancer within their populations.



What amazes me is how Israel continues to take their orders from, and respond to, the American government when it is so apparent how mistaken we have been in so many of our political decisions. I, like many others, have watched the lack of leadership we are experiencing in Iraq and Afghanistan with dismay. We have gone into war with no exit strategy and absolutely no understanding in the Pentagon or the White House of the Arab mindset. For the Bush administration, and most of our and Israel's politicians, the focus is retention of power and creation of even greater wealth for themselves. The answer to everything is money. Unfortunately, it is coming out of our Social Security and our children's future.



The Palestinian Authority's Mahmoud Abbas wants us/America/the West to double the funding for Palestinians and the reaction is, "Why not?" This, despite the fact that rockets continue to fall on Israeli towns and arms continue to be smuggled into Gaza. Their so-called leadership remains corrupt to the core and Palestinian school textbooks are still promoting unabated incitement against Jews. Abbas cannot see anything wrong with letting the terrorists keep their arms. Actually, these increases are a drop in the bucket when compared with the debts that we, as a nation, are facing because of the 'war on terror'. It's perhaps a little overdue to remind ourselves who the terrorists are. Of course, nobody seems to notice that the 8-11 billion dollars probably still in Suha Arafat's shopping bag might be one answer to the plight of the poor Palestinians. I don't care anyway.



We are caught in a 'Catch-22' because if we lose the war, then our production, income, exports and way of life as we know it will vanish. Who would feel safe trading with us if we cannot stop the Muslims? Yet, people are bored with the reality and the majority has no concept of what is at stake. However, folks, there is no doubt in my mind that the Muslims know what is riding on this war. They have been completely committed, since kindergarten terrorism 101, to winning at any cost.



Don't get me wrong. I believe that Saddam Hussein is a bad guy, the worst in recent years. If he had those weapons of mass destruction, he would have used them. However, the reality is, he didn't. I do not believe that the way Bush and company have gone about this war was, or is, necessary to our safety as a nation. The Israelis had it right when they went into Iraq in the middle of the night with a half dozen planes and wiped out his nuclear capability. We, on the other hand, are trying to lead them into democracy, something they do not and cannot grasp, because it has never been part of their way of life and is totally foreign to their perspective. Anything foreign will never be received or accepted by them.



In the meanwhile, Israel's 'good friend' George W. is going merrily on his way, slicing and dicing the State of Israel like a salami. Logically, you would think that Ariel Sharon must be aware of the basic fact that nothing will satisfy the Palestinians or Israel's good European friends, or the Arab and Muslim world until Israel disappears from the planet. But apparently, he does not. Otherwise, why would he and the so-called leaders of Israel continue to plunge headlong into surrendering Israel's heartland - which was given in perpetuity to the Jewish people - to the very ones who have been living for the death of the Jews?



My momma, Queen Mollie, used to say that those who tend everybody's garden would soon get weeds in their own. Maybe it is time for George to get back to worrying how we are going to pay for the debts that he is racking up.