IRVINE, CA--In response to international outrage over Abu Ghraib, American politicians and intellectuals have declared that America needs to make a concerted effort to win over "world opinion." "In fact," says Alex Epstein, a writer for the Ayn Rand Institute, "the hypocritical and unjust condemnations of America for Abu Ghraib demonstrate that appeasing 'world opinion' is depraved and suicidal."

"Throughout the Middle East," observes Epstein, "torture--real torture, with electric drills and vats of acid--is official policy and daily practice. Yet there are no worldwide condemnations of the dictatorships that practice such atrocities--let alone the Arab-Islamic culture that produces so many torturers. But when a handful of American prison guards subject a handful of Iraqi POWs to comparatively mild humiliation, 'world opinion' condemns America."

"So-called 'world opinion'," explains Epstein, "is not some unanimous and just consensus, but the irrational and unjust opinion of the world's worst people: the Islamists who seek to subjugate the world to Islamic rule, the socialists and pacifists who seek to subjugate US sovereignty to UN rule, and the legions of 'moderate' followers who support or sympathize with these goals. The proper response to these people is not appeals and concessions, but to identify them as our ideological and political enemies, to kill and demoralize the violent ones, and to discredit the rest."

"President Bush, despite the complaints of his critics, has been the consummate appeaser of 'world opinion.' Instead of discrediting anti-American Muslims, he has appealed to their sensibilities and met their demands--e.g., sacrificing American soldiers to save Iraqi civilians and mosques, and striving to make the Iraqi occupation not look 'too American.' Instead of destroying the terrorist regimes that wage war against the West--including Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and the Palestinian Authority--he has sought their "cooperation" and even cast some as 'coalition partners.'"

"Every attempt to appease 'world opinion' preserves and emboldens our enemies. America needs leadership with the honesty and courage to say, 'Let world opinion be damned!'"

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Alex Epstein is a writer for the Ayn Rand Institute.