Can you negotiate a victory in this war?

Our front-leading Democratic presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, has vowed that we will withdraw from Iraq should she be elected and that the way she will do that is through "negotiation". The fall report of the Iraq Study Group also advocated negotiation with Iran and Syria as a solution to the war in the Middle East. We are constantly told that the Palestinians and Israelis must negotiate a peace settlement to solve all the Middle East problems (since the Israelis are the root of all the problems).

I once was intrigued with Sufi Islam and read Rumi extensively. But since 9/11 I have turned my attention more to other topics in Islam such as Sharia law and Wahabism. Surveys of Muslims in Britain show a large portion desire to have Sharia as the main law of the land. Sharia includes such niceties as "honor killings" for women who commit adultery, while Wahabism is a very violent strain of Islam extolling jihad being taught to the very young and exported around the world (including the US) by Saudi Arabia. There are over 1 billion Muslims in the world today, no doubt many peaceful. But even if only 10% believe in the violent strain of Islam, that's a lot of people. And even more passively agree with the violent strain, enabling the cycle of hatred and violence to continue. And then there are those who are too frightened to say anything since the penalty for apostasy is death.

And then there is President Ahmadinejad of Iran who has plans to wipe Israel off the map once he gets his hands on nuclear weapons. Ahmadinejad was one of the leaders of the Iranian Hostage Crisis in the 70's when the current war with radical Islam really started.

In our politically correct culture, those who tell the truth are ridiculed, as was Reagan for calling the Soviet Union The Evil Empire. Bush took an equally courageous position in 2002 calling out the Axis of Evil - Iraq, Iran and North Korea. But in the past 5 years no one has dared revisit that truth, despite overwhelming evidence of its truth.

The reality is that we have been at war with radical Islam since 1979 and there is no end in sight. Negotiating with evil only shows weakness. With the Soviets, time has proven that Reagan had it right. The limp-spined politicians that we have in Washington only prolong this war and increase the potential for death unequalled in human history.

Machiavelli wrote:

"There is no avoiding war; it can only be postponed to the advantage of others"