Blunder ? Hardly.
Tom Tancredo’s tell-it-like-it-is statement on the real nuclear option is catching some heat. baldilocks and Michelle provide some much-needed perspective to some of the overblown rhetoric floating ’round the sphere.
Speaking of which, I’d like to make it perfectly clear that Hugh Hewitt has declared my position is a fringe opinion and I may not be welcomed into mainstream thought. Hugh has decreed that if Tancredo’s “blunder” does not offend me, then I do not understand the GWOT. All hail Hugh.
Hugh’s pronouncements on what is acceptable opinion aside, I think the failure of (the invisible “moderate”) Muslims to disassociate with and turn out the radicals in their midst means that they wish to enjoy the fruits of any jihadist victory, while being spared the consequences of defeat. And since the jihadists, at least, consider this a holy war, well then, we should respond in kind. But no, says Hugh:
We are not in a war with devout Muslims. We are in a war with Muslims who think that their faith compels them to kill non-believers and the nations that support those extremists. [and also] Anyone defending Tancredo’s remarks has got to make a case for why such a bombing would be effective.
Fortunately, Hugh feels no need to make the case for why bombing, say, Tehran would be more effective in stopping jihadists than bombing Mecca. Likewise, Hugh must feel any difficulty we experience in separating the radical jihadists from the “good” Muslims must be entirely our fault, as they have taken great pains to distinguish themselves from their terrorist co-religionists. And by “taken great pains”, I mean “done nothing at all”.
Should Mecca be the first target ? No, but Hugh should explain to us poor misguided peons what the strategic value is in taking Mecca completely off the list of possible retaliations for a WMD strike in the US (other than so the jihadists don’t get really, really mad at us, I mean). And perhaps even explain why he thinks jihadists will be grateful if we level Tehran instead – will our restraint finally make them love us, Hugh ?
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