#2 - There is only one time to go to war – Once convinced that evil can not be put down without going to war and before war comes to your own doorstep.

#3 – and there is only one way to go to war - United in the single purpose of winning that war, no matter the expense.

In the world-wide war against terrorism, Washington DC has failed in all three basic rules of war and continues to fail today.

On September 11, 2001, war came to our doorstep, but only after Washington DC had failed to take the international rise of Islamic terrorism seriously for more than thirty years. We had watched terrorism grow to threaten peace in other parts of the western world and even ignored multiple attempts on American targets for decades. U.S. policy makers had greatly over-estimated the value of their so-called diplomatic (appeasement) efforts and under-estimated the depth of hate and commitment to killing in our enemy.

After 3000 innocent civilians lay dead on 9/11, America had no choice but to confront international terrorism in a very real way. There was to be no more appeasement or diplomatic efforts to “contain” terrorism off-shore. There would be no more trading blows. There would be no more cherry picking targets or ignoring the state sponsors of international terrorism in Iraq or anywhere else.

Americans were firmly behind a retaliatory strike against those they believed responsible for 9/11. But support weakened the moment the mission moved beyond an initial retaliatory strike and into the next inevitable phase of preventing the next 9/11.

Six years later, convinced by an endless effort to politicize the war and separate Iraq from the war on terror in the average mind, few are prepared to finish the job we started shortly after 9/11.

That’s because most Americans dislike the cost of real peace, which is sometimes war. Most have no personal experience with war, securing a nation’s peace or with confronting an evil the size, scope and determination of Islamic Jihadists or their many inspired copycats.

Most Americans are also unaware of what it takes to win such a war and they dare not consider the unacceptable cost of losing.

Most don’t even know that we are still experiencing attacks in America even today. They think the war is happening halfway around the globe in neighborhoods they couldn’t care less about. So, they want the war to end… Yet for our enemies, the end of this war is nowhere in sight.

Every event on this list is a documented terror related act that took place in America within the last seven days. There is nothing special about the last seven days. Every week since 9/11 looks similar.

The war on terrorism focuses upon the primary target of Islamic Jihadists from several known networks working in more than sixty countries and based in several Middle Eastern states known for sponsoring terrorism. But not every act is carried out by Middle Eastern members of those networks. These networks have recruited local citizens in the countries where they operate and some events are simply copycat terrorists, often confused sympathizers of the Jihad movement or just plain old fashioned anti-Semites or nut-cases.

The worldwide list for the last seven days alone would include hundreds of terror related acts. Western civilization is very much engaged in an international war against terrorism, here and abroad. Yet Presidential candidate John Edwards’ recent remarks echo the sentiments of many Americans and many Washington politicians.

Edwards' position, the phrase "war on terror" is a Republican bumper sticker, is a position that many Democrats wanted their primary candidates to occupy. Mrs. Clinton and the freshman from Illinois want a “do-over”, to legislatively retract the congressional authorization to fight the war. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid simply want to cut off funding for the troops so that they can’t afford to fight the war.

From nut-case TV host Rosie O’Donnell to nut-job former President Jimmy Carter, from the Chairman of the Democrat Party to the last Democrat Presidential candidate and every Democrat voter, too many Americans fail to grasp the very real war being waged against western civilization and the need for those societies to defend themselves from an ongoing threat of terror. Yet our enemy remains as committed as ever.

Islamic terror networks have been working in more than sixty nations for more than thirty years with little response from the west. Even as many of our allies around the globe were repeatedly attacked, Washington DC sat on its hands and watched the evil rise up until it reached a strength and grasp capable of successfully attacking the last remaining super-power.

America was not prepared to confront this evil when it was only attacking our allies halfway around the globe. We were not ready to confront it after 12 years and 16 broken UN resolutions, as the most brutal terror regime on earth continued to rape, torture and murder its own people while rattling its saber at the free world.

Washington DC misdiagnosed the threat for thirty years and sadly, most of Washington continues to mis-underestimate that threat even now. The American press has completely missed the real story. The peaceniks are entirely clueless and so are the politicians they have forced into a “retreat in defeat” agenda.

We were not ready to fight after the first attack on the World Trade Towers in 1993, or after our military installations and embassies around the world were attacked, or even after the attack on the USS Cole in the Yemen harbor. Those who say we “reacted” too soon or too harshly have ignored all of the events and warnings. They are ill-equipped to defend this nation as a result.

But, not only were we late to the party, we remain unwilling to confront this evil in a serious fashion, even today…

The first step in the effort to win any war is to realize and admit that you are indeed at war. Though it seems a very fundamental basic for confronting any evil, and an obvious oversimplification after being hit on 9/11, it’s a reality that seems to have gone missing among many Americans, including half of those in congress.

The second step is to recognize your enemy and accept the reality that their goal is to kill you if you don’t find a way to kill them first. We should be “responsible” in our efforts to eradicate this threat from the western world. But we can not be “restrained” in those efforts. We should never target innocent civilians and unlike our enemy, I’m certain that we don’t. But we can not avoid all innocent casualties if we are serious about defeating an enemy that works to meld into innocent societies until they strike.

Washington reflects the average modern American view, which reflects a mirror image of what our press has told them to believe. Most who read this column will have no awareness level of the list of terror events from the last week, last month or last six years. Most have no concept of war strategies, no understanding of our enemy and no vision of what life in America will be like if we lose the international war against terrorism. Many don’t even believe such a war exists.

We continue to fail on all three basics. To confront evil where ever it rears its head, to confront it before it is strong enough to confront us and to unite as a free people with the single purpose of defending this society and all others willing to join us in ending international terrorism.

So long as this remains the case, we can not win this war or defend this nation. So long as politicians seek personal power by undermining the policies of their political opponents, they will provide aid and comfort to our enemies at the same time. So long as our press continues to bury the headlines of ongoing terror activity here and abroad while working to undermine the U.S. administration, Department of Defense and Intelligence community, the American people will remain ignorant and unable to support a successful conclusion to this war.

If you want Rosie O’Donnell, Cindy Sheehan or Hugo Chavez, each of whom has exhausted their 15 minutes of fame, as your President, then elect any of the Democrat candidates in 2008 and that’s what you will get.

If you wish to stick your head in the sand and pretend none of this is actually happening, elect an isolationist RINO like Ron Paul and you can pretend all is well until the next major attack.

But if you want to see America continue as the freest, most prosperous, powerful and peaceful nation on earth, you had better stop listening to the press and politicians willing to throw America under the bus to win personal power and start supporting people who understand this threat and have the guts to confront it, with or without public support.

There is no other way to win this or any other war!

And if we can not win this war, then we can not secure this nation or our future peace!