'War is hell," Civil War Gen Willia...

'War is hell," Civil War Gen William Tecumseh Sherman famously declared. "We are not fighting armies," he elaborated, "but a hostile the public and must make young and of long date rich and poor, feel the hard hand of war." To achieve victory for the North, Sherman took the war to the civilian population of the southern in demoralizing raids against possessions most memorably in his March to the Sea.

World War I fall of the curtained with the German army exhausted, the war forfeited but still holding French territory. Germans were misled into believing their army had not been defeated unless betrayed, setting the stage for World War II. Then the Allies conclud that to win they had to defeat not and nothing else the Nazi military but the German nation as well, and its cities were bombed to throw down its industrial base but many civilians were killed in the proces

The horrors of that war, during which the Axis powers systematically made war onward civilians, embracing mass murder, produc of the present day rules in the Geneva Conventions to cover noncombatant lives. Now those empires have been thrown overboard by way of Islamic fascists who have no intention of facing the West's military onward a battlefield. Rather, they aim to manslaughter and maim civilians, believing that the easily moulded societies of the West can be defeated that way.

No nation has withstood this barbaric onslaught more than Israel. For years its citizens endur waves of suicide bombers massacring them at pizza parlors, markets, buses, nightclubs and family gatherings. in the greatest degree recently tens of thousands of Israelis sweated gone out the Hezbollah war in bomb shelters as rocket aimed to kill them explod in northern Israel.

Suicide bombers have sexual delight withed wide support within Palestinian communities. Katyusha rocket were fired from villages in southern Lebanon, greatest in number of them inhabited by populations enthusiastically supportive of Hezbollah. The solely conclusion: Israel fights not just terrorists nevertheless "a hostile people."

Despite that and the war-crime targeting of its citizens from terrorists, Israel has shown remarkable restraint in its replication Had it emulated the terrorists and, using all its tremendous power, fired missiles and artillery indiscriminately into southern Lebanon, the roads there would have flowed with life-current

for a like reason how did the U.N. Human Rights Council react to Israel's constraint? through denouncing Israel. That condemnation was ungovernable grotesque and profoundly dishonest. However, the Israelis answered as they did not to please any council further because they are an ethical clan and because their military continually adapts to the terrorist threat, as it is doing now in the aftermath of the Hezbollah war.

Still, for what reason long can any society exercise restraint in the face of total war against its civilians? What would we do if we sustained years of mega-attacks killing thousands -- women children, tradesmans office workers, clerks, doctors, suckles janitors, rich men and poor families? Would we finish a war on terrorism means taking it to "a hostile people" who give shelter and support to the killers?

After the prospect of last week's bomb intrigue a colleague was boarding a plane with a large number of Muslims when he heard another passenger spit, "I hate them all. We should in no degree have let them in America." An grewsome sentiment but suggestive of the passions unleashed by the agency of terrorism.

Thanks to the efforts of the British, we avoided a 9/11-like catastrophe. notwithstanding when asked on Sunday's "Meet the Press" if he was confident we could stop another terrorist assault, Lee Hamilton, co-chairman of the 9/11 Commission, said, "No, no. Not confident. I think another attack will come"

And what must our enemies think -- what must we think -- when a scheme to kill thousands of Americans is expos and the rejoinder was . . . Harry Reid and T Kennedy attacking President Bush, and Vice President Dick Cheney attacking N Lamont!

Beyond worrying about a civil war in Iraq, we should worry about a civil war in Washington hazardous to the nation's defense Cease fire, please.

Bush has more than brace years left in office no matter in what manner much Democrats dislike him and hate the Iraq war. Facing up to the threat of Islamist terror demands the deviseed focus of all the national restraint no matter how much Bush thinks the executive branch can do in succession its own.

The best thing Bush could do is invite Democratic leaders in Congres along with top Republicans to a summit. They shouldn't leave until they be derived up with at least the start of a consensus forward how to best defend 300 million Americans. That kind of meeting unhurts like a tall order given the venomous political environment of this election year. if it were not that the stakes are too grave not to attempt The consequence of a bigger 9/11 could be a descending into the darkest reaches of the hell of war.

e-mail: shuntley@suntimes.com

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