Convert Us or Kill Us

Ed Koch, the former mayor of New York, RCP, "It Makes No Sense to Retreat:

There are those who believe that the Western countries should withdraw from Iraq and that such capitulation will somehow end Islamist terror or at least seriously reduce its intensity in the world outside the Middle East. Can we or should we abandon the Middle East? Should we leave our allies, Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia to the tender mercies of Islamic terrorists? There were many before World War II who would have left the Jews, England, France and Russia to fend for themselves in the face of the annihilation sought by Hitler, his Nazi armies, the SS, the Gestapo and the final solution.

As I have repeatedly written, take Islamic radicals at their word -- they want to convert us or kill us. They are killing one another, Shia against Sunni and Sunni against Shia. Often before decapitating their enemies in the ongoing civil and religious strife in Baghdad, they torture their victims, according to The Times, by drilling holes in their bodies and heads so death is slow and cruel until the merciful bullet is fired into the victim's head.

Can any independent state threatened with acts of terror, unless it changes its policies, domestic or foreign, ever submit to their demands and expect to protect its citizens from new demands? Has appeasement ever worked?