William F. Buckley says we have failed in Iraq. While it is not quite a Walter Cronkite moment, his pronouncement may be a harbinger of things to come. Americans lost the will to fight on in Vietnam after the Tet offensive proved that there wasn't any light at the end of the tunnel (even though the battle was a tactical defeat for the Viet Cong and their North Vietnamese masters). The spasm of violence following the mosque bombing in Samara may just be the tipping point that accelerates public dissatisfaction with the war. Americans who previously had stuck with their support of the President and his policy may now conclude that the Iraqis cannot govern themselves like we govern ourselves. They may conclude that, as Thomas Friedman of the NYT observed early in the war, Saddam Hussein was the way he was because Iraq is the way it is. The first indicator of the American people's resolve to be done with Iraq is if they vote the GOP out of control of Congress in November (assuming the Democrats can coalesce around some sort of withdrawal plan). Much can still happen between now and then, of course. But events on the ground in Iraq have tried the limited patience of the American people, and if the Iraq version of Tet hasn't happened yet, it might be just around the corner.

Mark Steyn writes a compelling column about the distressing ability of mainstream Europeans to turn a blind eye to Muslim gangs who kill Jews. Wasn't it Martin Niemoeller (a German Christian leader who eventually was put in a concentration camp by the Nazis) who said,

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a communist; Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a socialist; Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a trade unionist; Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out, because I was not a Jew; Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak out for me.

It seems the Islamofascists are just working at it in a different order (since Communists, Socialists and trade unionists aren't much of a factor in the Islamic world).