There are some that would have us believe that terrorism exists because of a lot of external circumstances. Some claim that it is caused by poverty. Some claim that it's our fault. The United States. shouldn't be doing business with governments in the Middle East that preside over regimes that are not free. Or that because the United States. has taken military action in the Middle East we will suffer at the hands of terrorists.

Some say we should be more sensitive because these children feel humiliated that their countries are backward and that they have been defeated in the marketplace and on the battlefield.

I just don't buy it.

For one thing, the people of Islam don't hate the West. They love it.

Since 1970, about 20 million Islamic immigrants left their homes and settled in Europe. As noted, there are millions of Moslems who have settled in the United States. They work, get educated, and earn money in the West, and many send much of their new wealth back to their families in their home countries.

If it wasn't for the West, there would be no oil wealth. Our companies found and developed these resources. Our prosperous free economies consume this energy and transfer wealth to oil producing countries in the Middle East.

Several of the bombings that took place in London occurred in highly populated Muslim neighborhoods. The same day of these bombings, terrorist thugs in Baghdad executed the head of the Egyptian mission in Iraq.

These pre-adolescent nut cases will kill anyone, from the West or from the East, Christian, Jew, or Moslem, who does not conform with their childish hallucinations.

In the wake of these latest incidents, there will be calls again for the United States. to withdraw from Iraq and the Middle East. However, we can no more do this than anyone can ignore their neighbor's delinquent children.

Freedom is not a luxury. It is a necessity for every living, breathing human being. However, it is impossible to be free without being an adult and this means understanding and living by those eternal rules that make it possible.

The clash today in our globalized world is not between nations, civilizations, or ethnicities. It is a clash between the mature and civilized of our planet and the adult children who refuse to grow up.

We cannot indulge them or those who assist them or rationalize their behavior in any way. Americans must understand, and hopefully those in Europe will understand more, that we have no choice but to be clear what the rules of humanity are, and to be vigilant and uncompromising in defending them.