As a prime example I need point no further than incumbent Senator Rick Santorum in my home state of Pennsylvania. He is running against Bobby Casey Jr. who I suspect is easily distracted by shiny objects considering he has not stopped running for some political office using his father’s name since 2000. I’ve heard local and national pundits talking about how “conservative” Rick Santorum is in an attempt to drum up additional support for his floundering campaign. And I laugh.

Come on. Let’s be honest!

The truth is that if Santorum is a “conservative”, the conservative movement is in deep, deep trouble. He certainly is better than the only alternative on the ballot but come on, let’s at least be honest.

Many people are not going to like that I am going to point out all the outright unconstitutional (or at best questionably constitutional) acts Senator Santorum has participated in. And no doubt some will like his propensity for hanging on to social welfare programs and pork barrel spending with white knuckles. But if you open your pocket constitution to Article I and especially Section 8 as well as refer to Madison’s dissertation in Federalist 41 you will clearly see that not a single one of these actions are under Congress’ authority. And that like it or not, I am right.

Rick Santorum has engaged in unconstitutional behavior including supporting:

- the continuation of unconstitutional programs such as Social Security, Food Stamps and even the expanding of Medicare to cover more things such as prescription drugs
- the use of federal funds to build power plants
- the establishment of Health Savings Accounts regulated by federal statute
- tax laws designed to interfere with the free markets like the Telework Incentive Act, the Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) program and benefit programs such as the Association Health Plan legislation
- funding for medical research and Lyme Disease
- laws governing how citizens may petition government under the auspices of lobbying reform
- federal funding for Pennsylvania’s public schools, special needs children and Headstart
- medical benefits to laid off workers through “Fair Care”
- redistributing of tax payer money to low income families in the form of matching savings accounts and the “Low-Income Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP)”
- interference with non-profit organizations working with the homeless and drug addicts
- the “Pet Animal Welfare Statue”
- farm land conservation projects under the “Farmland Preservation Program
- chasing “price gouging” phantoms with the “Gasoline Affordability and Security Act”
- price and wage regulations by supporting an increase to the minimum wage
- money to fire companies in the State
- funding healthcare facilities that are not able to turn a profit and compete in the real world
- interfering with private family matters such as family finances and the failure of individuals to plan for emergency situations including long term care of a loved one
- interference with the Executive Branch’s authority and control over the military by suing to stop to the closure of military bases in Pennsylvania

Each of these claims are proudly touted by Senator Santorum in his pamphlet “50 things you may not know about Rick Santorum” which should be more aptly titled “Many things conservatives wish they did not know about Rick Santorum”.

Now like I said, you may actually like some of those things. And you may even support Santorum on these actions. But it does not mean that he and the federal government have the power to engage in these activities.

Rick Santorum is certainly a man of spiritual convictions, has finally come around on immigration to support defending America from invasion by illegal aliens and has been pretty good on reducing taxes and some other issues we conservatives hold dear. But rather than puffing Mr. Santorum as a real “conservative” as many others do, I am compelled to tell you the truth. And that truth is that Senator Rick Santorum, while certainly more conservative than his opponent, is no real conservative.

This does not mean that I am encouraging conservatives not to vote for Rick Santorum. I cannot in good conscious do that because the only other options are not to vote or vote for Bobby Casey. And the thought of Senator Bobby Casey is even scarier.

I’m sick and tired of the lesser of two evils. I really am.

But if you do vote for him and other so-called “conservatives” like him understand when you pull that lever what you are voting “for”. Because usually beneath that “conservative” facade lays a big government demon that will need to be kept in check by we the people. And you can bet your bottom dollar that no matter which candidate wins November 7th they will need to be watched over like a 4 year old in a candy store.

To date we have fought a war against these terrorists with both hands and one leg tied behind our backs. And just to give our enemies a sporting chance we have amputated our other leg at the knee, blinded our selves in one eye and made our selves deaf as well. We’ve done all this in the hopes of winning the hearts and minds of our enemies with a “kinder” and “gentler” war and out of fear of being seen as no better than the enemy which we fight day after day. We ignore that attempting to win a war in this way not only makes us look weak but truly does make us weak. And to those that respect, if not fear, strength such weakness is constantly exploited. Fighting a war in such a manner does not work all that well.

Meanwhile our enemies are setting up in civilian neighborhoods. They are using women and children as human shields. With the help of a complicit media they are doctoring images to fight a PR war. And they launch rockets designed simply to kill civilian populations at residential neighborhoods without a military target in sight. I am not so naive as to look past the fact that in many places the “civilian” populations either openly or through their own unwillingness to act against the murderers among them give their support to the terrorists.

Do many begrudgingly give their support out of fear? Sure they do. That is the point of terrorism! Many support the terrorists because they fear the terrorists more than they care about dying senselessly as pawns for the terrorist cause.

Terrorists run in, set up a rocket near an apartment building, point it towards a civilian target with no military value, launch and then run like scared little school girls hoping they can get far enough away before the retaliation comes and kills those inside the apartment. Then they rush back in and parade the dead (and not so dead dead) around for the cameras.

We, on the other hand, put our own soldiers in shackles. We do this after they are struck by an IED which even a small child admits he and others knew was there and after our soldiers proceed to clear the area as they are coming under fire. In the process they kill some of these same civilians (whose status as “innocent” is seriously in question) whom the terrorists put in harms way in the first place.

We did not always fight wars this way. Wars were once even more brutal conflicts where the civilians of nations that were aggressors were considered supporters of the cause. We used to not worry about whether they were soldiers out openly carrying arms against our troops or if they were simply civilians who passively supported their government by refusing to rise up against them or even participate in creating the machines of war. We just bombed them. We flattened their homes until either they had had enough and turned on their government or they were room temperature.

If need be we brought out the big guns. We would drop single bombs capable of not just flattening a city but literally incinerating it and everyone within a quarter mile of the blast.

Truman in World War II had the right idea – you win peace (especially against a fanatical enemy) through superior firepower. You make it clear that you will annihilate them, their families and their lands unless they give up and surrender unconditionally. You do this not by telling them you will do this, but by actually doing it.

As Lebanon and its citizens continue to allow Hezbollah to strike at Israel we see the results of fighting wars with kid gloves. And make no mistake, Lebanon is allowing Hezbollah to operate in its lands. Even when the dust is settled after Israel cleans Hezbollah’s clock (again) there will be more violence and terrorism. That is unless Hezbollah is wiped out and the people that would support them are no longer willing to do so because they know that to support terror means the death of them and their families for a hopeless cause. If Hezbollah and their supporters are not annihilated the terrorists will retreat to lick their wounds and the carnage will continue.

I do not, to be clear, support the wanton bombing of “civilians”. Make no mistake, I do not suggest what I am about to suggest be done to areas where no attacks are emanating from and where people are peaceably living their lives.

However I do support the full use of the weapons we have against the military machinery of Hezbollah and other terrorists as well as those that are either actively or inactively supporting them by turning blind eyes to their actions.

My proposal is simple and, by some standards brutal. There should be a flight of B-52s in the sky right now over those cities where Hezbollah is setting up shop as well as states like Syria and Iran that support them. These bombers should be dropping leaflets that are simple to understand. They should read “In 24 hours if the rocket attacks and aggression against Israel do not stop immediately and permanently, the next time we drop something it will have a nuclear warhead attached. Civilians evacuate now!” If the guns and missiles are not silenced you carry through with the threat. You don’t capitulate or waffle or negotiate. You start dropping tactical nukes on every site that a rocket launch comes from be it next to a school, a mosque or a hospital and also on the military installations of each nation that supports these terrorists. And a couple on the homes of the leaders of these nations too would not be a bad idea either.

I certainly do not want to ponder the idea of truly innocent men, women and children being vaporized by a nuclear blast. But I also do not want to ponder the idea of a world 20 years from now we are continuing to fight this battle in an endless meat grinder of a war. I do not want to see another generation pass where people who just want to live their lives are sent off to be shot at by religious wackos and die fighting them. I do not want to see a world in the future where citizens of this country wonder when the next airplane full of people will be flown into a building or blown up over the Atlantic.

Nearly five years of this war out in the open rather than being fought in the back allies has tired all of us. All sane people are tired of the death and the fighting of this war and have been since the first bullet that was fired. Just because we are tired is not a reason to give up however. No sane person wants to watch children die when there is hope that they be spared and no sane person wants bloodshed to continue. Some of us however do not have our heads in the sand. We recognize evil and know the necessity of defeating it decisively.

The concept of “kill them all and let Allah sort them out” may seem a cruel and warped cliché. And I don’t want to kill “them” all where “them” refers to all followers of Islam or even Muslims and Arabs in general. I want to kill the terrorists and those that support them and end this war.

But unless we are willing to start showing the enemy that they will not win this war and start turning cities into craters it is looking less and less likely that many people whom they control will never turn against their terrorist masters with any determination and resounding force. And until they dread the alternative to supporting Islamic Terror more than the Islamic Terror they will never raise up against those that are enslaving them, turn on them and end this war once and for all. Until then, evil will continue to infest this world and our posterity will be forced to live in a world at worst ruled by it and at best held hostage by it.

One nuke will not end this war. It might take ten or twelve or even a hundred cities turned into green glass to end this as we chase the fanatics more consumed with death across the Middle East, Africa and Asia. But I am willing to support it.

Does that make me no better than the terrorists? Some might say it does not. I say it does. It does because I want peace for freedom loving people around the world and not a “peace” where men, women and children are forced to their knees in slavery to unkind masters.

The price of peace is high. It always has been. But the sad truth is our enemies dictate how high that price will ultimately be.