Let me finish tonight -and this week - with this.
I am against jihad. For the same reason I am against a counter-jihad.
I believe there is a direct connection between killing Islamic people on international television - night after night - since the first war with Iraq - has played into the hands of those selling jihad. Every night of war becomes a recruiting poster for the next suicide bomber.
I don't want an east-west war. The people behind Jihad do. They wanted it when they bombed the World Trade Towers. They wanted the United States to declare war on the Islamic World. We didn't. We didn't blame all Islamic people. We blamed Al Qaeda.
This must be our watchword - attack only our enemy.
If we become a belligerent in Syria, killing Arabs on global television, don't expect the people of Arabia to see us as the liberators. Don't except them to cheer us. Don't expect the youth of the Islamic world to sit watching Al Jazeera clapping their hands when we begin the bombing. Once again, we will be seen as the neo-colonial force invading Arabia for oil, for Israel, for Western influence. Again, we will be the infidel doing what we do, attack the land is Islam.
I believe that zealotry - by its nature - is episodic. The Mahdi rises up and then there are decades of peace. The one sure way to keep the zealotry alive is to stoke the fire. Heading into Syria with guns blazing is one sure way to keep the fire white hot for another decade - if we're lucky.
Starting a war is not a very sure way to end a war. It is a good way to make enemies.