The Redhunter

Jed Babbin is a former Air Force JAG officer, who has also served as a deputy undersecretary of defense in the first Bush administration He is currently editor of Human Events, and his articles appear in many publicications. He also appears on TV and guest-hosts popular radio talk-shows.

Among his many books, I have read and reviewed Showdown: Why China Wants War with the United States and have read (but forgot to review) Inside the Asylum: Why the UN and Old Europe are Worse Than You Think

Here are a few of our enemies quoted by Babbin:

From an interview with Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the "spiritual leader" of Hamas, before he was killed in an Israeli strike in 2004:

Question: Was the fact that the King of Saudi Arabia received you during your tour of the Arab states a message to the United States?

Yassin: It was an expression of appreciation on the part of Saudi Arabia for (our) activities for the sake of Palestine and to tell the world - especially the U.S. and Israel - that Saudi Arabia supports the path of jihad. Saudi Arabia has demonstrated strength and courage because it declared its position loud and clear, telling the U.S. that it supports the path of struggle to restore the plundered land. In other words, the weldcome I received was a clear message to the U.S. and a provocation of its policy.

This is from a 2004 sermon by Sheikh Ibrahim Mahdi, which was broadcast on Palestinian TV:

Blessings to whoever waged Jihad for the sake of Allah: blessings to whoever raidedfor the sake of Allah; blessings to whoever put a belt of explosives on his body or on his sons' and plunged into the midst of the Jews, crying "Allahu Akbar, praise to Allah, there is no God byt Allah and Muhammed is His messenger."

From an article titled "In the Shadow of the Lakes" by al Qaeda spokesman Suleiman Abu Gheith, posted at the website of the Center for islamic Research and Studies.

I lay (these arguments) before you so as to emphasize that we are continuing with our blows against the Americans and the Jews, and with attacking them, both people and installations (so as to stress) that what awaits the Americans will not, Allah willing, be less than what has already happened to them. America must prepare itself; it must go on maximum alert...because, Allah willing, the blow will come from where they least expet it.

Three statements taken from different speeches by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Undoubtably, I say that this slogan and goal is achievable, and with the support and power of God, we will soon experience a world without the United States and Zionism and will breathe in the brilliant time of Islamic sovereignty over today's world.

Such people are using words like "it's not possible." They say how could we hae a world without America and Zionism? But you know well that this slogan and goal can be achieved and can definately be realized.

Our proposal is as follows: Since you brought this regime (Israel) over there, you yourselves pick it up, by the arms and legs, and remove it from there. This will make the peoples of the region improve their attitude toward you. These will be the first steps to a long-lasting friendship with the peoples of the region. this will be to your advantage.

Chinese General Zhu Chenghu, also a professor at China's National Defense University, made in 2005 a statement that many took to be a threat of nuclear war over Taiwan:

If the Americans are determined to interfere, (then) we will be determined to respond....We...will prepare ourselves for t he destruction of all of the cities east of Xian. Of course, the Americans will have tro be prepared that hundreds...of cities will be destroyed by the Chinese.

Babbin then adds

Heritage Foundation visiting fellow Larry Wortzel, who attended Zhu's speech, reportedly offered the general a way out, asking if he meant only that China would respond with nuclear weapons if America first attacked China with them. According to one report, Zhu insisted that a nuclear response would occur even if Amerca interfered with (the) conqeest of Taiwan using conventional weapons. When a public uproar ensued, China disavowed Zhu's remarks. The disavowal is entirely consistent with china's "Twenty-four Chartacter Strategy"

Statements by Kim Jong-il, Fidel Castro, and Hugo Chavez are entirely predictable. Putin doesn't come off so much as an enemy as a competitor, and as such the chapter on Russia is Babbin's weakest case.

Any quote is open to the "taken out of context" criticism (just read the hostile Amazon reviews), but if you say "kill all the Jews", there's not any context that makes sense. Besides, if anything Babbin leaves out too much, especially on our jihadist enemies.

You can also argue that intent is not capability, or that Ahmadinejad is not the real power, that these are just the words of a demagogue to stir up the masses and that they don't reall mean it... or a hundred other things. But I think history shows that we cannot afford to assume anything. At any rate, world leaders must be held responsible for what they say. So even is Saddam Hussein did not have stockpiles of WMD prior to our invasion, it was still his responsiblity to come clean, which he decidedly did not do. Therefore, he bears ultimate responsibility for what happened. So, then, do the people quoted by Babbin.

Some people, of course, will never be convinced that while imperfect, and West is good and worth defending. There are those who will excuse any evil, as long as it's perpetrators hate the United States and especially George W Bush.

None of this is to say that we must immediately bomb x and such a country. Babbin makes few policy recommdations, and reasonable people can disagree over what do do about madmen like Ahmadinejad of Kim Jong il. But we first have to get over the notion that there are no enemies out there that would dearly like to destroy us, or that all of their hatred is a rational response to specific American policies. Babbin's book goes a long way toward dispelling such notions.