I'm With the Idiot for Once

"I don't see how you can be a partner in peace if you advocate the destruction of a country as part of your platform," Bush said.

Right. But the Palestinians went ahead and voted in Hamas anyway. For those of you not paying attention, the US and Israel classifies Hamas as a terrorist organization. Sure, they do a few nice things too, like helping the poor and handing out food, but they're most famous for killing innocent Israelis and brainwashing the public. Oh yeah, and they want to blow Israel off the map.

Sadly, without some sort of enigmatic leader to get people to change how they think (read Martin Luther King, not Arafat), I don't think this war in the Middle East will ever end. Unless Israel is destroyed. And while I'm certainly against that, it's going to take a lot of willpower and cruise missiles against a constantly growing, angry Palestinian population.

Think about that for a second -- destroying a country! It's ridiculous! The U.S. is against terrorism, but we don't want to destroy Afghanistan or Saudi Arabia. We want to make them better, to unlock the potential of their people, to free their minds and bodies. We need to convince the Palestinians and Arabs that our values are right, that their preference for dead Jews over peace is wrong. Because it is wrong. And that opens up a whole can of worms, land for peace, etc etc etc, but the Israelis have been willing to negotiate. Even Sharon, a hard-liner, wanted to deal. The Palestinians respond by voting in Hamas.

On a related note, Osama bin Laden recently noted his approval of a left-leaning book about US world hegemony. The result? Outrage, boycotts, angry letters? Not at all -- instead the book shot up from #209,000 to #30 on Amazon!