British authorities deserve the thanks and admiration of all civilized societies for their apparent success in disrupting the most ambitious terror plot since 9/11. In the process, they have also helped to explode some of the most persistent - and pernicious - myths concerning the war on terror. After this week, it will be far more difficult for anyone with an IQ above room temperature to credit inane notions such as --

1) THERE'S NO REAL TERROR THREAT-- 9/11 WAS ORCHESTRATED BY THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION TO ENHANCE ITS OWN POWER. The internet-addled loon-dogs who advance this concept will now need to explain how the "neo-con" conspirators managed to work their will on the British government (led by Tony Blair's Labor Party) and to get the whole security and political apparatus of the United Kingdom to go along with the alleged charade. The upcoming trials of the British Muslim conspirators will, no doubt, provide abundant information about the true nature of the menace we face.

2) THE THREAT TO CIVIL LIBERTIES BY GOVERNMENTAL OVER-REACTION TO TERRORISM IS MORE MENACING THAN TERRORISM ITSELF. Imagining the devastating impact of a plot intended to blow up 10 airliners, killing some 3,500 innocent people, should remind everyone that mass murder remains an even more troubling prospect than governmental authorities monitoring international phone conversations by suspected terrorists. Sensibile people should hope that the British officials (who say that as many as twenty co-conspirators in the latest planned attack remain at large) will employ precisely those energetic interrogation techniques with the apprehended plotters that leftists decry as more frightening than the slaughter of thousands and the destruction of the civilian aviation system. The public may even accept a slow official response in providing the accused killers with Korans, prayer rugs and Halal meat.

3) THE CURRENT RAGE OF MUSLIMS AROUND THE WORLD REPRESENTS A RIGHTEOUS AND JUSTIFIED RESPONSE TO ISRAEL'S ACTIONS IN LEBANON. Those who advance this argument must now cope with inconvenient facts about the current terrorist scheme: its leaders obviously began their sophisticated planning process long before Israel responded to attacks from Gaza and Lebanon by a defensive war to secure its own borders.  

4) IF THE U.S. ONLY PURSUED A MORE "EVEN-HANDED" APPROACH TO THE MIDDLE EAST CRISIS WE WOULDN'T BE TARGETED BY TERRORIST FANATICS. The British government has made a point for more than ten years of pursuing amicable relations with the Palestinians and has announced precisely the sort of "even-handed" approach that critics of the Bush administration suggest for the United States. Nevertheless, the plot arose in the United Kingdom, not the far more notably pro-Israel United States.

5) IN ORDER TO REDUCE THE RISKS OF TERRORISM, WE NEED MORE RESPECT AND ACCEPTANCE OF ISLAM -- NOT MORE "REPRESSION." For years, Britain went further than any nation in the west in accomodating and coddling Muslim fanatics in its midst; before the July 7th bombings of last year, the Blair government never would have implemented the sort of "head scarf ban" which the French put in place, enraging Muslims everywhere. Nevertheless, it's the live-and-let-live British who have watched the emergence of "Londonistan" as the current center of Western terrorist activities. Appeasement of hostile cultures in domestic policy works no better than appeasement of hostile nations in foreign affairs.

In the days to come, as more details emerge on the horrifying plans of the Islamo-Nazi killers and the effective efforts of the counter-terrorist heroes in thwarting their schemes, the international Left will no doubt assert that the entire story amounts to a distraction from the "real issues" (like global warming, raising the minimum wage, sanctioning gay marriage, getting justice for the martyred Valerie Plame, dancing on Ken Lay's grave, and providing government health care for all). Actually, the news from London returns our focus to the only public debate that actually counts as a matter of life and death: the ongoing efforts to defend our civilization from the suicidal barbarians who seek to destroy it. It speaks volumes about the true nature of this struggle that our adversaries view the prospect of blowing up airplanes as the ultimate triumph -- since their societies could no more construct airplanes (or automobiles, for that matter) than they could provide human rights and a decent life for their own citizens. Politicians and commentators who fail to note the stark contrast between the nations of the West (with all our faults) and our psychotic and bloodthirsty enemies deserve no respect and no attention from people of good will.