Rudy Giuliani was absolutely magnificent Monday night. What amazed me most was his unabashed broadside not against John Kerry, but against Europe and European appeasement of terrorism.

Here is the stunning passage (transcript from CNN):

Terrorism did not start on September 11, 2001. It started a long time ago. And it had been festering for many years.

And the world had created a response to it that allowed it to succeed. The attack on the Israeli team at the Munich Olympics was in 1972. That’s a long time ago.

That’s not yesterday.

And the pattern began early. The three surviving terrorists were arrested. And then within just three months, the terrorists who slaughtered the Israeli athletes were released by the German government — set free.

AUDIENCE: Boooo.

GIULIANI: Action like this became the rule, not the exception. Terrorists came to learn time after time that they could attack, that they could slaughter innocent people and not face any consequences.

In 1985, terrorists attacked the Achille Lauro. And they murdered an American citizen who was in a wheelchair, Leon Klinghoffer. They marked him for murder solely because he was Jewish.

Some of those terrorists were released, and some of the remaining terrorists — they were allowed to escape by the Italian government because of fear of reprisals from the terrorists.

So terrorists learned they could intimidate the world community, and too often the response, particularly in Europe, would be accommodation, appeasement and compromise.

AUDIENCE: Boooo.

GIULIANI: And worse, they also learned that their cause would be taken more seriously almost in direct proportion to the horror of their attack.

Terrorist acts became like a ticket to the international bargaining table. How else to explain Yasser Arafat winning the Nobel Peace Prize while he was supporting a plague of terrorism in the Middle East and undermining any chance of peace?

Before September 11, we were living with an unrealistic view of our world, much like observing Europe appease Hitler or trying to accommodate the Soviet Union through the use of mutually assured destruction.

President Bush decided that we could no longer be just on defense against global terrorism, we must also be on offense.

Now, this wasn’t the most diplomatic passage. I’m sure the Germans and Italians are kicking their collective puppies this morning on the continent. But there hasn’t been a clearer exposition of how we got into the War on Terror from an American politician to date.

Giuliani has proven again and again that he has a deep understanding of the new world in which we are living. Listening to him tonight, I felt like no matter who wins in November, 2008 can’t come soon enough.