Topic category:  Other/General

Almost five months ago, I wrote an article entitled “Kabuki Dance with Evil” which described the horrific consequences of the March 28 election in Israel that brought the Kadima Party to power in Israel.  As I said at the time “Kadima, the invention of Ariel Sharon, is presumably a middle path between Likud and Labour, but that is a farce:  Likud and Labour both function contentiously but freely within the Knesset.  What is the real middle path Kadima represents?  It is the middle path between Mein Kampf and Torah, the middle path between evil and good; it is a Kabuki dance or dance macabre with evil.”

I wish that I had been wrong.  I wish that Hamas and Hezbollah and Syria and Iran had not accurately understood that Kadima represented the “cut and run” sentiment of many Israeli politicians and, sadly, of many Israeli voters.  But I knew when I wrote those words that I was right.  Evil smells weakness.  It was inevitable that the triumphant of a “peace” party in an Israel surrounded by governments and groups that hate Jews would lead to a completely unnecessary war.

What is worse is than the war itself is the utter tactical and strategic incompetence with which Kadima waged war.  Those social program Leftists in the Kadima cabinet waged the war in the same way that LBJ waged the Vietnam War.  Air power, then incremental increases in forces, then changing military commanders, led after LBJ left America with a mess that forced Nixon to a negotiated peace that led to genocide.  Victory seems simply not to have occurred to LBJ or his advisors.

It is eerie to consider some of the complaints raised about how America fought the Vietnam War and how Israel fought this war.  Vietnam was “David against Goliath.”  The very power of America was considered to make it the villain, just as the “disproportionate response” of Israel was considered to make it the villain.  The idea that evil should be confronted with overwhelming force by good nations seems either “unfair” (in the same way that productive citizens becoming rich is “unfair”) or seems to be a denial that good and evil exist.

The true nightmare for Israel now is that it may be viewed as a paper tiger by its neighbors – as a nation and a people either unable or unwilling to decisively win wars.  That may mean that even nations like Egypt and Jordan, longtime uneasy but not warlike neighbors of Israel, may become more militant.  It means that the quick victories of Israel in past wars may decay into the sort of war of attrition that Israel cannot win.  It means that past enemies in past wars, who did not use suicide warriors but who instead surrendered, now see a new way to destroy Israel.

This should matter to all people who treasure Judeo-Christian values and who want peace and freedom because Israel is the vanguard of those things in the Middle East.  It should also matter to Americans who have stuck their head in the sand because America may soon also bring to power ignorance, militarily incompetent, peace at any price politicians.  The example of what happened in Israel should send chills down the spines of anyone who sees the party that booted Joe Lieberman with a chance to gain control of Congress.

It is not just that such a shift in power would invite more attacks on America and American interests around the world, but that the leaders of Congress would insist that instead of winning the war against evil we should negotiate with evil, make peace with evil, begin a Kabuki dance with evil.  Can we afford that?  Can the world, full of cowed and craven democracies numbly following our lead, afford that?

The answer is either “yes,” we can win a long, bloody global war on evil after spending trillions of dollars, tens of thousands of soldiers’ lives, Heaven knows how many civilian lives in terrorist attacks, and how many years of our lives suspended while we fight a war for survival, or the answer is “no” in which case the best we can hope for is that our descent into a ghastly global totalitarianism is not too fast. 

Evil must be resisted.  The crocodile, as Churchill noted once, will eat everyone in time.  Those who bide time by allowing it to eat others first, those who bargain with evil, lose more than just their lives.  A Kabuki dance with evil is always wrong.

Bruce Walker

Biography - Bruce Walker

Bruce Walker has been a published author in print and in electronic media since 1990. He is a regular contributor to WebCommentary, Conservative Truth, American Daily, Enter Stage Right, Intellectual Conservative, NewsByUs and MenŐs News Daily. His first book, Sinisterism: Secular Religion of the Lie by Outskirts Press was published in January 2006.