Today’s appeasers of terrorist Islamism, following in the legacy of Neville Chamberlain, are terrified of terrorists, will not admit it, so cloak their fear in sophistry.

Instead of holding fanatical Islamists accountable for their actions, the appeasers seek to find politically correct explanations for how western/capitalist excesses have caused third world “indigenous” peoples to hate civilization.

The professional “peace activists” are afraid to even utter the words “militant Islam,” “radical Islam,” or “Islamism,” for fear they may “incite” the wrath of the terrorists upon their comfortable, western lifestyles.

They say President Bush is not doing enough about terror, but any security initiatives the president proposes are met with accusations of racial profiling, invasion of privacy, and/or assaults on personal liberties.

At the same time, the peaceniks claim Bush is doing too much: The Afghanistan and Iraq invasions cause terrorism - even though they were ordered after the 9/11 atrocities. Blame Bush even though 800 Americans were slaughtered by Islamists before 9/11.

The appeasers say Bush "lied" even though the New York Times admits that Saddam had ties with al-Qaeda and the Czech government confirmed four meetings between 9/11 ring leader Mohammed Atta and an Iraqi intelligence officer.

Islamists massacred 320 civilians - half of them children - in Beslan, North Ossetia. They killed 12 in Delhi, India; murdered 60+ in Turkey; and have killed tens of thousands in Indonesia, Algeria, and Nigeria. Al-Qaeda slaughtered 88 innocent Egyptians on July 23.

But North Ossetia, India, Turkey, Indonesia, Algeria, Nigeria, and Egypt did not participate in the Iraq invasion. Most opposed it.

Terrorism does not exist. Terrorists are freedom fighters. Michael Moore said so.

The activists claim Bush does not listen and has failed. But a Pew Global Attitudes Project survey of 17,000 Muslims revealed, "Osama bin Laden's standing has dropped significantly in some pivotal Muslim countries, while support for suicide bombings and other acts of violence has 'declined dramatically.'" The poll also revealed "widespread support for democracy" among Muslims.

Muslims, mostly decent people, are pouring into western democracies, fleeing the oppression of megalomaniacs like Saddam. But there are enough radicals among these immigrants, sworn to the destruction of the nations in which they seek refuge. They do not need the assistance of the appeasers.

The immigrant Islamist creed? Kill all the Jews and gays, forcibly convert the Christians, ban music, outlaw dancing, and disenfranchise everyone, especially the women - and make sure to blow up all effigies of Buddha, the Prince of Peace.

The peace activists rush to protest American justice after 9/11, but are silent when Sudanese Arabs slaughter 400,000 black Africans or when Kuwaitis ethnically cleanse 300,000 Palestinians.

Free will, not the peaceniks' precious communism, is breaking out all over the world with President Bush's help - in Ukraine, Abkhazia, Romania, Lebanon, Iraq, and Afghanistan - even so to some extent in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

But the appeasers would have you believe that "democracy" is a bad word, an unwelcome side-effect of capitalism. Is democracy too good for Arabs and Muslims? Do they not deserve self-determination?

Democracy is not some artificial American invention, created to be forced upon "indigenous" peoples. The peaceniks have conveniently forgotten North America's "5 Nations" (Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca) who ended centuries of warfare by creating a democratic system they invented themselves.

It took not one, but two atomic bombs to convince the racist, Japanese warmonger Hirohito to surrender. Do you want it to come to nuclear weapons again? Have people already forgotten what it took to stop Hitler? Have they forgotten the 100 million slaughtered by Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Ho Chi Min, and Milosevic?

The Islamist ideology shares one principle with communism and fascism besides the utopian sophistry: create lots of dead bodies.

I can only quote Bob Marley: "In the abundance of water, the fool is thirsty." The appeasers are dying of thirst -- smiles on their faces – fiddling while Rome burns.