Beyond the contortions and betrayals of liberal and leftish thinking lies a simple emotion that I don't believe Americans take account of: an insidious fear that has produced the ideal conditions for appeasement. Radical Islam does worry Europeans but we are trying to prevent an explosion by going along with Islamist victimhood. We blame ourselves for the Islamist rage, in the hope that our admission of guilt will pacify our enemies. We are scared, but not scared enough to take a stand.
(This might be the point to say that while I believe the Iraq war was a foolish mistake, I still believe that we have no choice but to struggle, sometimes violently, with radical Islam.)
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Rod's plan for pursuing Islamic radicals-- Berating local Muslims. Eating good, healthy food. Make friends with military families so he can whine and cry when they have to do their jobs.
"How should we struggle? WHERE should we struggle? How many lives are you willing to sacrifice in the name of this struggle, since you see no benefit to the efforts ongoing in Iraq, and the subsequent death toll there? C'mon, Rod. You can keep cursing the darkness, but it'd be nice if you shed a little light. Let's hear your multi-point plan for pursuing Islamic radicalism." See my one-point plan above. Stop immigration from Islamic countries. Monetary cost: Small. Diplomatic cost: Smaller than, say, Iraq at least. Effectiveness: Very large.
I see one problem with the suggestion that we should limit Muslim immigration to the US: what about the millions of Iraqis who have left their (currently unlivable) country? Jordan and Syria have appealed to the UN for help, being unable to deal with the 2M-and-counting Iraqi refugees. Since we caused this mess, it seems only fair that we should take these people in.
Fair? Oh yes, as it is, us Euros are taking a big hit as well. Prudent? Not really. Your choice.
Bob writes: "Some of those people who hate us and who covet what we have also want to kill us. They already have killed some of us, if memory serves. Should we just shrug our shoulders at *that*?" I didn't suggest shrugging our shoulders when they come after us. "Hit back hard" are the words I used. But on what basis can our actions in Iraq be defended from *any* point of view? We've lost more soldiers there than we lost civilians in the WTC, which Iraq had nothing to do with anyway. And Iraq civilian deaths, thanks to our flailing-about, might total 100,000, or even far more. And here we are, entrenched in such a way we apparently can't get ourselves out of our self-created mess. Meanwhile our respectability and prestige are in the mud. So long as the team that hates us and wants to do us harm doesn't do us any actual harm, let's take reasonable action to protect ourselves and get on with life. If they do harm us, let's kick their asses and make 'em pay in such a way that they'll think a zillion times before trying it again. I've got no quarrel with any of that. But so far as lurching around the globe, trying to set things "right" in some vague way goes, because we've talked ourselves into an obsession with "evil" and because we think of ourselves as crusading do-gooders, count me out.
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