'All those who hate me love death' — Jehovah, Proverbs 8:36

'We love death. The US loves life. That is the difference between us two.' — Osama bin Laden, November 2001

Superlatives are insufficient to describe the horror currently seen in Iraq: bags filled with severed human heads; scores of bodies found with the eyes drilled out; limbs amputated with power saws; crowds of Iraqi children blown to bits for accepting candy from American troops; pits filled with bodies of executed 'collaborators'. These are the daily deeds of the self—proclaimed Islamic 'freedom fighters' in Iraq — the Warriors of Jihad.

And in one of the most ghastly events in recent weeks — a female suicide bomber pushing into a crowd armed with a barrel full of ball—bearings and kerosene — those who were not instantly shredded to pieces agonizingly roasted to death as the flesh fell off their bodies. 'Two pre—teen girls embraced each other as they burned to death,' was part of the description of the scene provided by the Washington Post. The body count was 38 — almost all women and children — in that incident alone.

Additionally, in just one shift this week, the Baghdad police reported finding 58 bodies and/or parts of corpses. To begin to get a grip on the scale of awful magnitude of the situation, consider that more people will be murdered by al—Qaeda and its jihadist allies in Iraq this month alone than all of the victims they killed on 9/11 (3,009 murdered in Iraq in August 2006 vs. 2,996 on 9/11). They seem intent on liquidating the entire populace in order to save them for the New World Caliphate.

This is not the first time that the modern jihad movement has turned their bloodlust against their own. From 1992—1998, conservative estimates indicate that over 100,000 Muslims were killed by the Algerian GIA, which was backed by al—Qaeda and other Islamic supporters. There, the world stood by so the French could protect their 'sphere of influence' and the international balance of power not be disturbed.

Does anyone remember a world wide wave of outrage over these deaths? Or can we finally admit that the "world community" has one set of standards for The United States and Israel, and another for everyone else?

As British commentator, Brendan O'Neill, writing in Spiked, observed last week, the violence committed against the people of Iraq really has no end purpose other than terror and murder itself. The terrorists have no substantive political program they are hoping to implement. At least Yasser Arafat, may he rot in Hell, had that. But as O'Neill puts it in reference to the Iraq insurgency:

At a time when political ideology is derided, and when fighting or agitating for a clear self—interest is looked upon with suspicion, we seem to have an insurgency fighting for nothing in particular: one that expresses itself almost emotionally rather than politically, in suicide bombings that can be seen as individuated expressions of frustration rather than part of a collective strategy to expel Coalition forces and take the reins of power in Iraq. The demise of the old ideologies of left and right, or West vs East, has given rise to seemingly aimless and unwieldy movements, especially in more volatile parts of the world such as Iraq and Afghanistan.

No. Instead the terrorists have adapted the idea of Sorelian revolutionary violence and Fanon's anti—colonial 'therapeutic' cleansings, and now have made mass murder an end in—and—of itself. In perfect post—modern fashion, the Islamic terrorists in Iraq have elevated slaughter to the level of existential and individual aesthetic expression. They videotape their butchery and post it on the Internet so that the world may know,

'I kill; therefore, I am.'

The Iraq insurgency is little more than Jackass 2: The Movie with IEDs and automatic weapons.

And yet despite the savagery we see that the Iraq insurgency is cheered by the masses of the Arab 'street', financed by Islamic businessmen all over the world, religiously justified by countless Muslim clerics, promoted by the Arab (and American) media, encouraged by the anti—war movement in the West, and represented by the Cut—and—Run Caucus in the United States Congress.

Even as we are in the height of the US election season, I have yet to see a campaign commercial from either party willing to tell the American people the truth of what is happening in Iraq. Where are the Congressional war supporters willing to show the American people the gory reality of the war we are engaged in and the enemy we face? What explanations can the war's detractors like John Murtha, offer us for their willingness to cut and run to leave the people of Iraq to face such unspeakable inhumanity alone? Where is the outrage from the talking heads on Hardball and Bill O'Reilly? Where are the mouthpieces from CAIR demanding US military action to destroy Al—Qaeda and their allies to save the life of innocent Muslims? If Iraq is not the war on terror, and the inhuman butchers of Baghdad not terrorists, will someone please tell us where they may be found?

Never before in the past generation has America been in the position to put an end to such savagery. The war in Iraq is no longer just a battle over American interests and promoting democracy in the Middle East — it has become a battle to defend humanity itself. If we lose our nerve now, we can be assured that we will face this threat again much closer to home.

Yes, we have been here before. Repeatedly over the past century, in fact. In the past we have ignored George Santayana's admonition, deliberately choosing to forget history. The judgment of History will rightly and surely condemn us if we abandon the people of Iraq and Afghanistan now in their greatest hour of need by allowing the Islamist Cult of Death to run rampant unchallenged in those lands. This evil must be vanquished. We must fight this battle — not for politics, religion, or revenge — but for no other reason than to preserve the image of God in man, because it threatens us all.

Patrick Poole is a regular contributor to American Thinker. He maintains a blog, Existential Space.