For many of us, the reason for dismantling the Iraqi regime has been clear for many years and about 12 years overdue. As the President and the Administration have often reminded us, this is a government that attacks its neighbors, offers safe haven to global anti-Western terrorists, commits genocide against its own population and has created torture chambers the like of which are unmatched in their barbarity. Beyond this, the Iraqi regime has been building a stockpile of lethal weapons that could easily wreak untold havoc on the civilized world.

As the drama unfolds among the Arab states, the reason for fighting this war should come into even clearer focus for the observant. Typical of fighting in the Muslim world, no code of honor among combatants is sacred. So-called civilians ensnare our troops by waving the “white flag” of surrender before these fedayeen (irregular terror fighters) open fire on Coalition troops. To those of us who have watched the tactics of the PLO and the various terror squads in Israel for most of our adult life, this horror has lost its shock value. For Israelis this enemy that our journalists call terrorists, monsters, thugs…etc. are the common fare of Israeli daily existence to protect the lives of its citizens.

We have long known about the “protection money” that Saudi Arabia pays to these interlocking terror groups, which includes Al-Quaida. Syria, the Palestinian territories, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Egypt, Sudan and Pakistan have long served as training bases and logistical/intelligence supports to these quasi-governmental groups. Indeed, the PLO IS the government of the Palestinian territories. Making peace with the Palestinians is like trying to embrace Afghanistan under the Taliban and Al-Quaida.

The latest news is that Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hizbollah, and our “peace partners” in the PLO are sending “homicide bombers” to kill American forces in Iraq. Nothing is being done by Jordan or Syria to shut off their borders. Our “moderate” ally, Jordan, just let four busloads of Iraqi men dedicated to fighting the Coalition infidels cross their border to create mischief in the West of Iraq. Secretary Powell has been clear that Syria is providing weapons and night goggles to the enemy. US Intelligence reports that Saddam’s WMD were delivered in truckloads over the border into Syria.

What is going on? The answer is fairly simple: A reasonably free Iraq in the center of the Muslim world presents a threat to the legitimacy of all the surrounding dictatorships. A Free Iraq as a permanent feature of the Middle East means an end to the self-contained darkness of hatred and bigotry which these regimes need to explain the suffering they have foisted upon their own people. An alternative model of a Muslim state in the heart of Arabia unravels the status quo of over sixty years.

Former Secretary of State James Baker III entirely missed the point when he was quoted as saying “F*** the Jews, they don’t vote for us anyway.” with respect to US policy toward Israel. The fact is that Israel is fighting the exact same war we are fighting. It is not Jews that the Arabs hate but what the Jews stand for: liberal democracy, independent courts, open elections, free press, capitalism and social tolerance. In short, Israel is a bastion of Western and American values in that benighted region. The Arab goal has never been coexistence but always annihilation of the “Zionist/American entity.” The moderate Arabs believe in the destruction of the West in tactical stages, the radicals are for all out Jihad. To claim that the fanatical Wahhabi branch of Islam has hijacked the religion may be an interesting historical note, but it is the dominant ideology of the region. The fight by the Arab rogue states to defend Saddam is not out of love for Saddam but out of self-preservation. The fight to defeat Saddam is no less a matter of self-preservation of the West.

The syncophancy of France and Germany notwithstanding, the West is finally seeing that we are in a Clash between Civilization and Barbarity, between Light and Darkness, between Freedom and Serfdom. The US and the West is paying a price for demanding that Israel make peace with murderers. Those whom we have placated have come to kill our own troops. Those with whom we blithely suggest “the diplomatic solution” flew into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. By holding back the mighty swift sword of Israel, we have permitted the disease of Gaza and Arab Terror to spread throughout the world. Had we only permitted the Israelis to crush the terrorists in 1967 or 1973 or in Lebanon, we might not now have emboldened the fedayeen to threaten our cities and our ports.

We fight for a free Muslim world and the eradication of terror as a means of warfare. We fight to end the global network aimed at the Free World. We must also fight to end the cancer at the center—the irrational hope—that the Palestinians should or could have a state West of the Jordan River. If King Abdullah is so keen on the Palestinians, give him the country he inherited by no merit of his own from the UK after World War Two. As long as the Palestinians are permitted to be a rallying point for the radical Muslims, it is true that there will be continuous strife in the region—but not in the sense that the Arabists say. Should the Palestinians get a state it will be a reward for sixty years of terror. Should the Palestinians be forced to accept Jordan as the already existing “Palestinian” state, it will end the fires of fanaticism once and for all. The reason we fight in Iraq is to create a lasting and permanent peace, the peace of the brave, for the entire world.