The smell of our fear

New York Post's Ralph Peters worries that we are allowing our fear of irritating or offending Muslim extremists to open the door to do that which we fear--injure and terrorize us.

Appeasement doesn't work. It doesn't work with dictators, and it doesn't work with terrorists. The attempted Times Square bombing was yet more proof.

We've allowed Islamist extremists to dictate what we can say, print or portray. We don't want to offend them. The First Amendment bows before Islam.

The Obama administration has ducked all unwelcome evidence that such appeasement doesn't work. Instead, it goes to absurd lengths to convince Muslim radicals that we respect their views.

Our counterfactual assumption is that, if we're really, really nice, the fanatics will stop being grumpy and blowing us up. But Islamist extremists haven't read our actions (or inactions) as an admirable exercise in tolerance. They read our bowing and scraping and apologizing as weakness.

The mean-dog law applies: Let that pit bull sense that you're afraid, and you're going to feel its teeth.

Of course, the analogy is unfair to pit bulls, because if you treat a pit bull with love and respect, they will protect you with their lives.

I want America and the federal government to be the biggest, baddest, meanest government on the planet when someone or some thing threatens Americans. During the height of the Roman empire, a Roman citizen could walk the length and breadth of the empire without fear because the Roman government had made clear that a person who trifles with a Roman citizen will find the full weight and might of the Roman empire crashing upon their head. When Muslim extremists or others who wish to do Americans harm come to realize that if they harm or kill Americans they will be hunted to their last breath, only then will we have true security. A few select midnight visits by a SEAL team or a kicking in of the door by a Delta Force team will quick show that terrorists can be terrorized as well.

Strength, not appeasement, will be our security.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/the_smell_of_our_fear_mYzCYnFsrWpPfJv2p8lcyN#ixzz0n3sOVSys


Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/the_smell_of_our_fear_mYzCYnFsrWpPfJv2p8lcyN#ixzz0n3sKlYts