Speaking the truth to those who would complete Hitler's legacy

I couldn't let the day end without cluing you in to Joseph Loconte's article about the nexus between fascism, radical Islam and anti-Semitism (and, no, it's not Israel's fault):

The rise of Islamo-fascism in Tehran, in fact, is not at all beyond comprehension. Its emergence is perfectly predictable--given the political theology of radical Islam and the culture of victimization that sustains it. Like his mentor, the Ayatollah Khomeini, Ahmadinejad embraces an extremist Shiite view of purity, obedience, death, and redemption. Bush deserves much credit for recognizing this ideology for what it is: the totalitarian impulse, inspired by utopian illusions and sanctified by the pathology of anti-Semitism. Osama bin Laden and his allies, after all, have repeatedly expressed their hatred not only of America but of Israel and Jews everywhere. In a tape that surfaced recently in Cairo, bin Laden deputy Ayman Al-Zawahri again urged Muslims to take up arms against the 'malignant illness' of Israel and the Christian West. Bush critics imply that this message resonates with the 'Arab street' because of Israel's treatment of the Palestinians (and America's support for Israel). More likely is the fact that anti-Semitism rises like a vapor from the political and cultural swamps of the Arab world. Television programs, newspapers, internet cafes, universities, mosques, religious schools--here and elsewhere Jews are regularly depicted as 'satanic' enemies of Islam and instigators of U.S. intervention in Muslim lands. Holocaust denial is routine. A columnist for the Egyptian paper Al-Masaa, for example, defended the Iranian president's outbursts with these words: 'What this truth means is that these massacres . . . never happened. The famous execution chambers were no more than rooms for disinfecting clothing.'

Loconte's point -- and a good one it is -- is that Bush was not a naive little Bible thumper when he began classifying Iran, and other, similarly situated nations, as "evil." Instead, like the bright boy in the Emperor's New Clothes -- and like Reagan with regard to the former Soviet Union -- Bush has demonstrated that he's the only one out there in public life with enough courage to speak the truth.