What Honor, Gov. Huckabee?

Growing up in rural Missouri in the 1980s, honor meant a lot - especially in the schoolyard. If a bully threatened you - and you wanted not give up your lunch money, have girls like you, avoid having your friends abandon you, or even just exist in a public middle school in peace - you had to fight him. You had to beat him up, if you could, or at least injure his pride to the point that he would search for easier prey. That was schoolboy honor.

To some extent, that honor is replicated in the honor among nations. Nations that are strong like Switzerland are rarely touched throughout history, and nations that are weak like Belgium often are. The key point, however, is that honor is tied to the ability of a person or nation to defend herself from aggression or invasion.

The United States government invaded Iraq, successfully. American soldiers lost no honor; Iraqi soldiers and their leaders lost plenty. If we left today, as Rep. Paul advocates - most would applaud our good sense, and hope we don't try that stunt again.

However, the United States government lost honor during 9/11. Even though the FBI and the Border Patrol had information on the hijackers, we failed to catch them. Because of current restrictions, the pilots had no arms to defend themselves - never mind many airline pilots are qualified to do so. For the first time in history, NATO patrolled the skies over New York and Washington, instead of our own planes. Every fumble, including Giuliani's insane decision to put an emergency center in a former (and future) terrorist target, lost honor for all involved.

The only way to restore that honor is not to honor the dishonorable, but completely revamp how things were handled that day. Cut the bureaucracy that silenced the analysts who knew what UBL was up to, and change our foreign policy from one of aggression to one of vigilant peace and mutual prosperity. That is the American way, and the honorable way.