Dear Editor,

As a Libertarian swing-voter who disagrees with both major parties at least 50% of the time - I think Gessing (and the Left) couldn't be more wrong in their understanding of the reality of the world we live in today.

It all comes down to one's answer to these two questions:

1. Does Islamo-fascism present an immediate threat to the security of our individual lives, and to the long term survival of Western civilization?

and,

2. Can we deter this movement by saber rattling (AKA the Cold War scenario) and treating individual terrorist outburst as law enforcement issues, or are we headed for an inevitable conflict - one which we should try to manage sooner than later, and on our own terms.

I believe that this movement is on an upswing whether we confront it now or not. I believe it is tempting to deny this because it is a very harsh reality and people don't like facing harsh realities.

I think the pre-World War II model fits best. There were people who were strongly non-interventionist (due to bad memories of WWI). And they argued, wrongly, that Hitler's fascism was not such a great threat, and that he could be contained peacefully.

The delay in reacting to Hitler caused by these isolationist idealists led to a strengthened and almost unstoppable Hitler and the deaths of countless millions.

On the specifics of Bush policies. I don't think trolling telephone company databases for links to known terrorist "black book numbers" threatens my privacy one whit. Nor do I think that keeping prisoners of war (caught on the battlefield) locked up without access to our regular court system is anything close to the Soviet gulags of old.

As to pushing hard for pluralism and democracy one country at a time. I believe this is a good thing - even if it doesn't always work. I believe these are universal human values and have nothing to do with imperialism or cultural hegemony. They are the cure. Cures don't always work - but at least we will have tried.

If we wait until we are forced into a major showdown - like we did with Hitler, millions will die again. Think about the scenario of 5 or 10 U.S. cities hit with large dirty (radioactive pollution) bombs.

Think about the mass exodus, the tanking economy, the outrage, the response. Think about cities on fire across the Middle East.

We want to avoid this scenario. We must stop Islamo-fascism before it thinks it is impervious to retribution.

Regards,

Chris Jones
Sequim, Wa