Hezbollah and other Islamo-fascist terrorists concluded long agothat "if it bleeds it leads" doesn't simply apply to the sensation-hungrymedia. Islamo-fascist mass murderers maintain public bloodletting (theirenemy's and their own) is a victory in itself.

We know "big bloodletting" means big headlines. But forHezbollah's philosophes, mass bloodletting servesanother purpose: It is a demonstration of terrorist commitment and moralwill.

Islamo-fascist "death cult" terrorists are convinced theirforceful willpower (when combined with actions demonstrating millenariancertitude) ultimately guarantees defeat of liberal Western couch potatoesand sheep.

The Islamo-fascists aren't the first international mass murdermovement to deserve the moniker of "death cult." In the late 19th and early20th centuries, trans-national anarchists touted "politics of the bomb" and"propaganda by deed."

The anarchists spilled blood -- over a seven-year period(1894-1901) they killed a French president, a Spanish prime minister, anItalian king and a U.S. president (William McKinley). However, they failedto ignite a global revolution that they claimed would produce an earthlyparadise of justice once the ancien regimesdisappeared in flames. The anarchists believed their own propaganda, and bydoing so misjudged the enormous strengths of liberal capitalist democracies.They totally underestimated the United States.

Unfortunately, the anarchists' agitprop techniques informcontemporary terrorists, and the dregs of its half-baked philosophiescontinue to deform a few lost corners of human culture. A romantic notion ofanarchist violence energizes much of the radical-chic rhetoric emanatingfrom American college campuses, providing pseudo-intellectual tropes foranti-Americanism and "anti-globalization."

These are the rear-guard actions of a dead-end ideology posingas the avant-garde.

We'll all be better off when Islamo-fascism follows anarchism'spath. Pray for the day when the proponents of Hezbollahism and Bin Ladenismare mere academic crackpots.

But defeating Islamo-fascism means men and women who love theirown liberty enough to defend it (wherever they live on this often torturedplanet of ours) must once again display more spine than the killers.

Defeating death cults entails persevering despite loss of lifeand heinous outrage.

At the moment, the world's most critical demonstration of thewill to persevere and destroy terrorism is Israel's confrontation withHezbollah in northern Israel and southern Lebanon.

During the 1990s, Hezbollah (with Iranian and Syrian support)fought a grinding guerrilla war against Israel's occupation of southLebanon. Under international pressure to withdraw as a prelude to a peacedeal, Israel pulled out. Hezbollah touted Israel's withdrawal as a loss ofIsraeli will to fight.

But Hezbollah's Iranian masters never thought the U.S. would bein both Afghanistan and Iraq. The Iraqi election of January 2005 ignitedLebanon's "Beirut Spring" pro-democracy rallies. Those rallies shook eventhe most willful tyrants in Tehran and Syria. The appeal of liberaldemocracy brought couch potatoes and sheep into the streets -- indicatingthey weren't couch potatoes.

Which is why I know this Israel-Hezbollah war is no accident.Tyrants and terrorists must dash the hopes of couch potatoes and sheep. Thewill of the tyrants and terrorists cannot be successfully mocked andchallenged, or it's over for the tyrants and terrorists. And, oh yes, Iran'sholy quest for a nuclear weapon cannot be thwarted, either.

But tyrants and terrorists' willpower and warfare are beingchallenged. Over the last two weeks, criticism of Israel from the usual amencorners has been conspicuously circumspect. It appears U.S.-led diplomaticefforts designed to give Israel the time to defeat Hezbollah are working.

Let's hope Condi Rice can buy Israel a couple of months. Israelindicates it intends to destroy, bunker by bunker, Iran's investment inHezbollah. The Israelis are killing Hezbollah's fighters -- and letting thesensation-hungry media document their deaths.

Hezbollah can proclaim a victory-in-death, but like the claimsof its global anarchist antecedents, the bloody tout will be desperatelyhollow.

To find out more about Austin Bay and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2001 - 2024CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.