By Ben Beliles, from Guam, on the outer rim of the Republic

Unfortunately, the threat to our nation and our military does not begin and end with Iraq, as some candidates for President would like to pretend.

Iran’s threatening posture of sustained nuclear arms development as well as increasing public statements advocating the elimination of the state of Israel are not even given a seconds’ thought by many in the West, which is more concerned with one Iraqi detainee who died at Abu Ghraib when several soldiers went beyond the scope of what they were ordered to in direct contravention of American policy. The fact that those soldiers were held accountable is irrelevant to the international leftist movement and an international media largely influenced by that movement’s propaganda. Where is the marching the streets in response to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s proclamations against Israel and the Jewish people? Where are the demonstrations and the little dolls of Ahmadinejad being burned in effigy? There aren’t any because no one cares. With growing anti-semitic violence and vandalism in France and the rest of Europe, we can only breathe a brief sigh of relief at the election of Sarkozy, with the hope that he can make some substantive changes in a nation that is on a dangerous tailspin into darkness.

Read on . . .

As an American of French descent and an avowed Francophile, I can only hope that the electorate that voted down the EU Constitution two years ago and now has elected Sarkozy perhaps has seen the light and does have some sort of moral backbone. Perhaps they realize that this is their last chance before being swept under by the tide of the Islamic advance. What Charlemagne and the mythical Roland at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass accomplished in pushing back the Islamic forces in the 700s and 800s on the Iberian Peninsula and what Constantinople accomplished by holding off the Turks for centuries is being undone by a new type of encroachment. This one is founded on immigration, birth rates, and the intimidation of Western European democracy through the sacking of synagogues and chapels, the murder of Catholic nuns, the rioting at the mere depiction of Mohammed in a cartoon or in a German play, and the assassination of individuals who exercise their freedom of speech like Theo Van Gogh in Holland. The Islamists in Europe are also using new laws that restrict free speech to help limit the publication of writers such as the late Oriana Fallaci and others. They are intent on eliminating any dissent by intimidation or by seemingly legitimate means handed to them by European legislatures who foolishly thought that the restriction of the freedom of speech might be a good idea.

George W. Bush, although he has made many mistakes in the response to Islamic terrorism, understands what this is all about. As I visited with my wife in South Korea in the October of 2006 where she was finishing law school, before we were married at the end of December, the North Koreans detonated their nuclear weapon while I was there. As I discussed the development with South Korean citizens and thought about how this might impact the international situation, I watched Bush’s press conference late one night on CNN World. And I finally realized how well Bush gets what this is all about. He doesn’t always know how to best respond, but he’s willing to throw away his popularity, his legacy, whatever it takes for what he believes is right. And in that moment, I finally admired him for what he truly was: a man trying to do what he sees as right, although fallible and mistaken prone though his efforts might be.

It is for this reason I am grateful to have had George W. Bush occupying the White House these past six years