Sometimes even as decent a nation as the United States -- the greatest and best and most compassionate state in the history of humankind -- simply has to kill the bastards who are trying to kill us.

Peace, as an abstraction, is a fine thing. Peace without justice and reckoning is meaningless.

I don't just want bin Laden and Saddam dead. I want them hung in public on a sunny small town square in Nebraska or Missouri. And then I want to play a lot of old fiddle tunes and have dinner-on-the-ground to celebrate.

You must understand, it's not President Bush who's at war. The American people are at war. Those of you in Europe may not appreciate this, and those of you over here on the lunatic fringe of the leftover left may not approve. But the overwhelming majority of Americans want this murdering, thuggish "jihad" out of business and buried deep in the ground.

The U.S. is a peaceful nation, but once aroused -- and this is a trend among democracies in general -- we don't merely defeat our enemies, we destroy them utterly. Think about world history since 1940, and you'll see what I'm getting at.

Democracies don't like to fight. It's not good for business, and there's no money in it. But once the horror starts -- history teaches -- we finish it.

Tony