Den Beste laments that we're apparently dropping the idea of going after Iraq.

I hope he's wrong. For one thing it isn't going away, and it isn't going to get easier if we wait. I've just assumed that we're waiting to rebuild our inventory of smart bombs and cruise missles. There are reports that we've already got special forces in the area getting their bearings.

The most important reason not to back off, however, is that it will make it harder to keep the "moderate" Arabs on board.

These people believe that it is their duty to God to rule the world, to impose Islam (submission) on the rest of them. However, they are not crazy. They now know that they can't always win against the West. But we gave some of them the idea that we could be attacked with impunity by doing nothing time after time after time. Now 3,000 civilians and the skyline of NYC have paid the price.

There is not nearly enough attention being paid to the advice of Bernard Lewis, who for my money has had the most accurate comments on this whole thing, because he knows the Middle Eastern mind and he is not constrained by ideological or national loyalties. He says that the Arabs respect resolve, and see "coalition building" as weakness.

My view is that they will never like us, because we are not going to submit to sharia or acknowledge Islam as the supreme religion. We aren't going to drop our support for Israel, either. We shouldn't bother trying to placate them or win their friendship. We should let them know that we are done with our dithering and negotiating. There are no terms but the ones we dictate. That is what Arabs, who have tribal, Bedouin roots, understand and respect. They will cooperate only as long as we are resolute. If they see us weakening or becoming distracted, the support we've had so far will disappear like the dew.

We can't risk giving them the impression that we're not determined or that we can be deterred, whether by Arabs or our weak-kneed allies.