Victor Davis Hanson;

Imagine a different Nov. 4, 1979, in Tehran. Shortly after Iranian terrorists storm the American Embassy and take some 90 American hostages, President Carter announces that Islamic fundamentalism is not a legitimate response to the excess of the shah but a new and dangerous fascism that threatens all that liberal society holds dear. And then he issues an ultimatum to Tehran’s leaders: Release the captives or face a devastating military response.
When that demand is not met, instead of freezing Iran’s assets, stopping the importation of its oil, or seeking support at the U.N., Mr. Carter orders an immediate blockade of the country, followed by promises to bomb, first, all of its major military assets, and then its main government buildings and residences of its ruling mullocracy. The Ayatollah Khomeini might well have called his bluff; we may well have tragically lost the hostages (151 fewer American lives than the Iranian-backed Hezbollah would take four years later in a single day in Lebanon). And there might well have been the sort of chaos in Tehran that we now witness in Baghdad. But we would have seen it all in 1979- -and not in 2001, after almost a quarter-century of continuous Middle East terrorism, culminating in the mass murder of 3,000 Americans and the leveling of the World Trade Center.

Required reading.

Sandi Rinaldo on a CTV National News promo just now, in reference to the bombing in Grozny;

“Political assassination in a war with no end in sight.”

Stop.
Stop. Stop. Stop.
Stop talking about this war as though the primary objective is to “end” it. We can end it today – through surrender, withdrawel, appeasement.
The ultimate goal is the defeat of Islamic fascism and the terrorism it spawns around the world. The only objective must be to defeat ideologies and regimes that oppress and suppress freedom and plurality and equality of peoples.
It’s a mistake to hope for an end just yet. There is too much to do, there are too many tentacles to cut. This is a cancer that has grown over decades and it will not be cured in a year or two. As difficult as it is to face the truth, as much as we wish it were otherwise, we must stop hoping for it to “end”, or we will fail.
First, victory – however long it takes.
Then, the end will come on its own.

While the media has moved into full-bore news recycling [note to editors – new pictures of the same scandal does not a “broadening” story make];
Chechen president assassinated

The Kremlin-backed president of Chechnya was killed Sunday when an explosion ripped through a packed stadium during Victory Day observances in Grozny.
The head of Chechnya’s state council, the region’s finance minister and a journalist working for the Reuters news agency were also among the dead.
Several dignitaries were in the crowd for ceremonies to mark the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in 1945.
The top Russian commander in the region, Col.-Gen. Valery Baranov, was badly wounded. It’s reported he lost one of his legs in the explosion.

Kadyrov had been part of the separatist war against Russia in the 1990’s before recognizing his cause was being taken over by Islamists. He was being credited for helping erode public support for the movement.
While the abuses at Abu Ghraib are a public relations win for Islamism, this is a strategic and military one.
I predict it will be treated like any of the other news “blips” out there this morning. A day or two will pass, and we’ll hear nothing more until another blast goes off in another remote part of somewhere we know nothing about. A body count, some background history and then, back to analysis of naked detainee photos.