And it is vital to understand that while world opinion may be just the random collective judgment of mankind -- it is usually not random, but rather, in part at least, a propaganda-manipulated opinion.

Currently, the United States and Israel find themselves confronting a world opinion that is being shaped and manipulated by unfriendly others, and by the residue of historic malevolence, including: Hezbollah propaganda, European anti-Americanism and anti-Israelism, Muslim anti-Semitism, historic European anti-Semitism, and a mainstream world media that is tropistic to the foregoing factors.

Thus the question arises: How should Israel and the United States respond to the growing negative world opinion concerning the current Hezbollah/Israeli War? Naturally, the Europeans, the United Nations and the mainstream media -- the current majority in world opinion -- implore America and Israel to renounce Israel's and America's efforts at self defense from the hostility of radical Islamist terror: In Marcus Aurelius's phrase, to join the ranks of the insane. Both Israel and the United States should politely decline the invitation.

But nor is it in America's national interest (or Israel's) to say to hell with world opinion -- as some of the strongest advocates are currently saying. It is true that world opinion is at its most influential before the tanks roll and the bombs drop (just as the influence of a deterrent military force is strongest before it is actually tested in battle -- as Israel is sadly discovering currently).

And, importantly, it is also true that world opinion is powerless to stop the tanks rolling. So long as Israel decides to fight and America continues to give her diplomatic and re-armament back-up, world opinion can merely fume. So long as it remains in American national interest (particularly regarding our worldwide struggle against radical Islamism) to continue to back Israel, we should not be deterred by the rising fury of world opinion.

But over time, we ignore world opinion at our peril. World opinion tends -- to some extent-- to shape American voter opinion. And voter opinion tends to shape American politicians's opinion. Thus over time world opinion may weaken American will to defend itself against the amorphous but deadly Islamist virus.

Also, to the extent that defeating radical Islamism is enhanced by winning the hearts and minds of so far non-radical Muslims, corrosive world opinion against us only deepens the deep hole in which we currently find ourselves. America needs to get a lot better, fast, at the propaganda war that we are losing by default in the court of world public opinion. During the Cold War we spent billions and employed our smartest people to fight and win the propaganda war. Today, we are hors de combat.

Marcus Aurelius understood the appeal of joining the insane -- if there are enough of them. And like old Marcus -- the last of the five good Roman emperors -- we need to cling stoically to the dictates of reason in our continuous struggle for survival and victory. But it would sure help if we started trying to cure the pathology of an increasingly insane world. Our policy should be: Billions for propaganda, but not a single step back from fighting when necessary.