Why W is NOT stubborn

I'm not a political being ... at least, not compared to my scorched-earth-policy sweetie pie wife. But I did have what might be called a political epiphany last night. Tanya and I were driving home from grandson Miles's birthday party. The radio options were sports talk (me) or political talk (her), so to prove my love (some more) we were listening to the Sean Hannity show. In his give and take with the callers, Hannity mentioned the history of the Islamic Terrorists and how it goes back a lot farther than 9/11 -- remember the World Trade Center bombing in 1993? The attack on our Marines barracks in Lebanon in the 80's? Embassy bombings, the Khobar Towers, the USS Cole anyone? Without going into all that history in detail or stating it explicitly, what Hannity was reminding us of is that these fanatics are determined ... they are persistent ... they don't plan to give up ... they are resolute. That's when I got it.

Admittedly, nobody thinks things have gone well in Iraq. Not even knee-jerk support the Prez people like me. As things have dragged on and the body count has mounted and progress has been hard to see, the President has increasingly been catching hell from all sides. Even taking friendly fire. More and more you hear criticism that he's stubborn, pig-headed, got blinders on, etc. It sounds logical ... but it ain't so.

The President is NOT just being stubborn ... he is being RESOLUTE. As resolute as the enemy. Whether anybody else in big, fat, soft America has realized it, he has: victory requires that we match, and exceed, the resolve of the enemy. The Islamists are not people you can reason with. They are not interested in dialogue. They are not open to compromise. They actively practice child sacrifice in their homicide-bombing holy war. How you gonna reason with people like that? Match their resolve -- or capitulate.

How did another Sean say it in The Untouchables? Something like, "They cut one of yours, you shoot one of theirs. They put one of yours in the hospital, you put one of theirs in the cemetery." My quote may not be exact, but I think my President exactly understands the principal involved. He is resolved to win. Okay, he's not very articulate, but he's modeling what every American is going to need more and more as we confront our enemies and the future -- how to be resolute.

God bless America. God bless our President. God help us if we lose.