From a website on the ground in Iraq comes a report reprinted in Opinionjournal.com. Al Qaeda has degenerated into merely a mass murder and torture society. Those on the ground consider this a sign of desperation and a sign that the terrorists are losing.

It seems that, perhaps a few years after Dick Cheney made the comment, the terrorists are getting desperate and are in their last throes. Looked at from a long-term viewpoint, Cheney may have been right all along. The terrorism in Iraq may be a sign of worldwide desperation.

But it may not be either. Though the Islamic push for a caliphate has been in progress for hundreds of years, one could look at it as having gained momentum through the political correct wimpyness of western civilization. By the insidious insertion of "diversity" as a desirable goal in and of itself, even if the "diversity" amounts to tolerating clearly bad and immoral behavior, and even behavior decidedly hostile toward the society exhorted to be tolerant, western civilization has been induced to commit suicide.

The one thing shared by communists, far-leftists lf all stripes, environmentalists, radical feminists, and jihadists is that they all hate traditional western culture, especially the free-wheeling variety enjoyed in America. They all wish to destroy western civilization and have begun in countries more hospitable to their goals and more amenable to their violent blackmail, but have no fear. The ultimate target is the United States of America. Why else consider it the Great Satan? Why else pass Kyoto treaties to kill its economy? Why else forbid the use of natural resources? Why else chastise America for its success? The ostensible reasons are merely smokescreen. All these groups just hate America.