There'll be only more of the same that's been possessing the region for decade after decade after generation after generation – a war of terrorism and counter-terrorism, sneak attack and measured retaliation.

Intervention by the United States government, under whatever president, to bring the combatants to the table is futile.

The parties won't come together for a serious settlement because they can't come together. So much innocent blood has been spilled, so many promises broken, so many atrocious acts committed that there is no way on Earth to untangle the mare's nest now forever obscuring the original who-struck-whom.

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... When There Is No Peace

Under these circumstances, any peace settlement that is negotiated, any solemn agreement that is signed will not last, for there is no reality of agreement arising from mutual peaceful intent on which to graft any enduring accord.

Just as no contract can be viable unless both parties benefit from it, no peace treaty is worth its own paper and ink unless the conditions for peace are there to be ratified.

Peace treaties do not make peace; they affirm the existence of peace – the absence of conflict.

Too Late Now

In the Middle East today, there is no peace because there is no absence of conflict because neither side has won and the other lost.

The day has long, long ago passed into history when conflict could have been avoided and, out of that, peace precipitated.

Anything that flies in the face of that cruel reality is doomed to fail. Not only to fail, but to make matters all the worse.

There is no joy derived in writing those dismal words, but reality is reality and not always is it sweetness and light.

The Dove Has Flown

No matter how many peace processes or accords are cobbled together, Palestinians are never going achieve what they demand unless they cease tossing human hand grenades and wage all-out war – military assaults – on Israel.

No matter how many ex-generals the American president packs off on a plane to the Middle East to meddle, Israel is never going to achieve what it must have for a secure and peaceful future unless it ceases nipping away at the heels of the terrorists in its midst and wages all-out war – military assaults – on the Palestinian Authority.

Will that bring on a wider shooting war involving Arab states in the region? Of course it will.

A Wider War Is Coming

But that's going to happen anyway, sooner probably than later, for this Israeli-Palestinian death struggle is not going to wander away into the sunset.

It is eventually going to have to be settled the only way irreconcilable conflicts between political powers have ever been settled on this planet – by a fight which one side wins and the other loses.

Will the United States be drawn into that conflict? Of course it will.

That's going to have to happen sooner or later because it is in the strategic interest of the American nation and its people that the Middle East not be converted into a launching pad for a major Islamic war against the West.

In It to the End

America has now positioned itself – as it should have done – in the vanguard of what is going to be a global extermination of terrorism.

And if what the radical Palestinians are doing today to the people of Israel is not terrorism, then what else on Earth is it?

The United States – the American people – belong in this fight in the Middle East, for at stake is the superstructure of Western Civilization.

At the very least, Israel, for all its missteps and miscalculations, is the only democratic nation within a vast radius. Go look at a map.

America cannot afford to lose that little island of an ally.

A flock of Americans may not see it that way, but mark this: The Muslim states all see America that way.

With Us or Agin' Us

President Bush has served notice on the whole world this is a fight to the finish against terrorism and there is no Mr. In-Between.

As Vice President Dick Cheney recently confirmed on his tour to firm up support for the coming war against Iraq, the Arab rulers are waiting to see just how serious America is.

The last thing they want is to be on a losing side.

America must demonstrate to them, and to the rest of the world, that it means business in the war on terrorism.

Going Where the Terrorists Are

There is no surer way to do just that than to come down clearly, swiftly and hard against terrorism in the Middle East.

That means taking military as well as diplomatic action against Yasser Arafat and his Palestinian thugs.

And it means standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Israel in the military defeat of its enemies.

Is this war-mongering? No, it is not.

Only Road to Peace

It is peace-mongering, for in the Middle East there is no peace, and there can be no peace until terrorism has been crushed.

Forget the illusion of win-win. There can be only win-lose.

And the United States of America cannot afford to be on the losing side.