We have terrorists fighting us in Afghanistan. We have terrorists fighting us in Iraq. Israel has terrorists fighting them in Lebanon and Israel. And yet, in this country, we have people thinking that there is no reason for us to be fighting terrorists and that we should pull out of Afghanistan, Iraq, and anywhere else we have forces abroad and leave Israel to be slaughtered to boot.

They insist it is our fault for being powerful and threatening other countries. We bullied the terrorists into taking up arms. We're too rich and they're too poor and it's our fault so they have the right to fight back.

They've forgotten about the horrors of 9/11, the horrors of American soldiers being blown up or tortured to death, even the horrors of not being sure that their mail was safe from biological agents. They're just plain too safe here in America because of the sacrifices of brave men and women who are even now laying down their lives to keep the horrors abroad.

It has been said that a liberal is a conservative who hasn't been mugged yet. That is unfortunately true in many cases and many situations that people face in this imperfect world. It is no coincidence that many liberal youths become more conservative as they actually deal with issues in their lives instead of discussing them from the safety of their parents' household. When it is your life on the line and the issue is no longer a theoretical argument, it isn't as easy to ignore the actual reality of whatever is impacting your safety and well-being.

Still, we have people who have firmly shut their eyes and gone back to sleepwalking through dangerous issues. If only we would leave the poor terrorists alone and give them lots of money to feed, educate, and employ their population in a country of their own, everything would be just fine.

How many millions in aid did the rich countries of the world send to the Palestinians to feed, educate, and employ their population? And didn't they have land to form a country of their own? Did it help? For that matter, how much aid went to other Middle East nations after World War II? Aren't many of them sitting on huge pools of oil pumped through the technology supplied by the rich nations and reaping the profits? Is the money getting to their people? Who is keeping the money, the First World nations or the people running the national governments?

Our country can't keep sleepwalking through life chanting nonsense from liberal dreams. The terrorists are armed with enough rockets to send more than a hundred over the border onto Israel day after day after day. Their rich sponsors in the radical Islamic world have armed them to the teeth. Instead of lifting them out of poverty through education and economic development, they are using them as pawns to try to destroy a peaceful neighbor. They can hardly be considered the underdog with billions in oil money arming and backing them.

They want to destroy us for threatening their way of life with the temptations of freedom and democracy!

We are not the problem keeping so many countries mired in poverty. We are not the teachers that brainwash young children to aspire to become terrorists. We tried sending aid and teachers to lift the world out of tyranny and poverty after World War II. Germany and Japan are now free, industrialized nations because they learned the lessons and applied the aid to help their people. The Arab countries are free, industrialized nations to the degree that they also followed this path. We can show them the way to freedom and prosperity, but they have to choose to follow it. We can give them the chance, but they can grasp it or throw it away.

Those leaders that choose despotism and corruption are responsible for the state of their people today. Until they stop pointing fingers at us to redirect the rage of their people towards us instead of towards the problems inherent in their own societies, there is little that can be done about their miserable situation. We are responsible for protecting our own people and the rest of the civilized world from their unjustifiable terrorism until they decide that they would rather join the rest of us in developing the world instead of destroying it. The Magna Carta had to be delivered on the point of a sword, and the peace treaty for the terrorists to sign may well have to be delivered on the point of a victorious modern bayonet.