In the Senate of Ancient Rome, Marcus Porcius Cato - 234-149 BC, subsequently known as Cato the Elder to distinguish him from his great-grandson Cato the Younger - became famous for concluding every single speech he gave, no matter what the subject, with the exhortation: Carthago delenda est. Carthage must be destroyed.

Today, we need Senators and Congressmen to conclude every speech they give with the exhortation: Fallujah delenda est. Fallujah must be destroyed.

That’s the question conservative California Republicans are angrily demanding an answer to. Because there is no doubt in their minds that Karl Rove, the guy who runs GW’s election campaigns, is behaving as if he intentionally wants his boss to lose the Golden State in November.

To The Point salutes Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, who issued the following press release in response to Israel’s targeting Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin:

(Washington, D.C.) Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (CA-46), who at times has been critical of Israel, supports the killing of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. “The Israeli attack focused specifically on the head of Hamas, a terrorist organization that has claimed responsibility for slaughtering innocent civilians,” Rohrabacher said. “No one on either side of this conflict should target women, children, and the elderly.”
“Killing a murderer like Sheikh Ahmed Yassin makes noncombatants safer because it eliminates one threat and sends a message to other killers. Sheikh Yassin had the blood of innocents on his hands, and was a danger to Israelis and Palestinians alike. Had he lived, he would certainly have master-minded more killing and destruction, which would then have led to more retaliation. His death is a matter for celebration. It serves the cause of peace and security in the region.”

To The Point also salutes our soldiers serving in Iraq on the anniversary of the American invasion of Iraq to topple the regime of Saddam Hussein. One year ago, I wrote “Prouder Than Ever,” in celebration of George Bush’s determination to take the fight to America’s enemies and of the American military’s competence in doing so. I remain prouder than ever of our president, our military, and of our efforts to defeat the terrorists by bringing peace and liberty to the people of Iraq. “Prouder Than Ever” is now posted in the “Classics” section.

Contrary to what you have been told all your life, history is not written by the victors. If this were true, why, then, is there not a single statue of Hernando Cortez in Mexico City?

History is made by the victors, but it is the poets who write it. Spain - and Mexico’s - great tragedy is that there never was a Spanish Homer who immortalized the monumental heroism of Cortez. Instead, the Spanish got a smart-aleck novelist, Miguel Cervantes, who ridiculed Spanish heroic values in Don Quixote. It has been downhill for Spain ever since.

Remember Robert Torricelli? He was one of the biggest crooks ever to infest the United States Senate (and that’s really saying something, isn’t it?). How crooked was he? “The Torch” was so crooked that… (Johnny Carson drum roll please…) he was too crooked even for New Jersey.

The investigations of his taking bribes reached such a fever pitch that in late September of 2002, with less than five weeks before the election, he resigned and gave up his run for re-election. New Jersey law was quite specific that this was too late for the Democrat Party to nominate a replacement. But the Dems got a crooked judge to waive the law, allowing them to put Frank Lautenberg in at the last moment, who then defeated the Republican nominee Doug Forrester.

A few days ago, my buddy Capt. Larry Bailey - former Commandant of the Naval Special Warfare Training Center (the place that trains the Navy SEALs) - made an interesting prediction. “You know, Jack, I wouldn’t be surprised if Kerry ends up like Torricelli.”

This is not - NOT - to accuse Hanoi John of being a crook. To the best of my knowledge, John Kerry has never used his office to extort bribes like Robert Torricelli. The parallel is different and it is this:

Last week, Vladimir Putin was re-elected President of Russia with over 70% of the vote. Does this portend the re-animation of the Soviet Russian Empire, led by a man with an unchallenged grip on power, possessed with a deep nostalgia for the glory days of the USSR, and determined to bring back those days again?

No, it means that Russia has taken itself out of the global game. It means that Russia has no future. It means that Russia is resolutely determined to screw itself.

A good case can be made out that the most arrogant military leaders in the world are the Brahmin generals who run the Indian Army. The hatred and intransigence they have towards Pakistan knows no bounds.

Get them in their favorite easy chair at their gentlemen’s club in New Delhi and pour some single-malt scotch into them, and they’ll tell you of how someday nuclear war will be inevitable, that, yes, India will lose a few score million -- but what’s that to a nation of over a billion souls? -- but Pakistan will be wiped out and then India will divide Pakistan up into four Indian provinces and that will be that.

You listen and you think these guys need to read some Greek tragedies about the fatal perils of Hubris. For the mind-blow truth is that in a nuclear showdown between Pakistan and India, Pakistan holds the high cards.

[This is the text of a speech I am giving today, March 5, in San Diego, to members of the Council for National Policy. CNP was formed in the early 1980s and is composed of the leaders and principal activists of the conservative movement throughout the United States - i.e., the “conservative elite” of America. CNP members played the principle role in creating popular support for the Reagan Doctrine. This speech calls upon them to do the same for the Bush Doctrine of taking the War on Terrorism to the terrorists. - JW]