Wouldn’t you know, just when I swear off posting for the day, a thought occurs to me. I’ve been hearing this story all morning.

So, we kill four of them when they attack, and we pursue and kill another twenty seven. Nobody tells us if any escaped, which is to me the most important statistic, from a psychological standpoint.

Think about it. The Pali terrorists don’t mind dying if they get to take Jews with them, so it’s hard to dissuade them from their attacks even by killing them. But if every time the Fedayeen attack us in Iraq, they have no survivors, and we sustain no or minimal casualties, rendering the whole thing futile, I’ll bet the attacks will stop pretty quickly. Imagine their state of mind if they send out a squad against the Americans, and none of them return.

It may in fact be possible to dissuade them, even without killing them all. After all, contrary to the conventional wisdom of the media, it’s hope that fuels such attacks, not hopelessness. We have to take away all hope from Saddam’s minions (which will in turn boost the hope of the Iraqi people).

This is a lesson that we have to figure out how to apply to the Israeli situation. Unfortunately, I don’t think the State Department gets it yet.