Our enemies believe we're cowards. We're also fools.

Appeasement doesn't work. It doesn't work with dictators, and it doesn't work with terrorists. The attempted Times Square bombing was yet more proof.

We've allowed Islamist extremists to dictate what we can say, print or portray. We don't want to offend them. The First Amendment bows before Islam.

The Obama administration has ducked all unwelcome evidence that such appeasement doesn't work. Instead, it goes to absurd lengths to convince Muslim radicals that we respect their views.

Our counterfactual assumption is that, if we're really, really nice, the fanatics will stop being grumpy and blowing us up. But Islamist extremists haven't read our actions (or inactions) as an admirable exercise in tolerance. They read our bowing and scraping and apologizing as weakness.

The mean-dog law applies: Let that pit bull sense that you're afraid, and you're going to feel its teeth.

Instead of applauding our ecumenical decency, terrorists just smell fear.

So we've had yet another attempt to ignite an inferno in the heart of Manhattan, to slaughter the innocent and teach America a lesson.

Since the Obama administration deepened our submissive attitude toward Islam -- banning all references to "Islamist terror" or "Muslim radicalism" from government documents and statements -- the number of terror attacks on our soil has gone up. Does any reader believe this is just a coincidence?

The dogs of terror smell fear. Terror's response to our president's Cairo valentine to fanaticism last year was the Fort Hood massacre, the attempted Christmas Day bombing, now the botched bombing of Times Square -- and a swelling number of foiled plots.

The Times Square near-miss was particularly revealing. When it looked like the bomber might be a forty-something white male, the media's delight and the relief of our politicians was palpable: At last, another Timothy McVeigh! It isn't only Muslims!

Boo-hoo. The perp turned out to be another Islamist terrorist we can't call an "Islamist terrorist."

Now the question of most interest about the terrorists' latest Manhattan Project is whether Faisal Shahzad, a newly naturalized citizen (great vetting job!), chose Times Square just because it's a powerful symbol and always crowded -- or if he also hoped to hit Viacom's headquarters as punishment for South Park's (promptly self-censored) lampoon of Mohammed. (continues here)