Sen. Tancredo Does An "Oops!'
The good U.S. Representative Tom Tancredo of Colorado mispoke today. We all do it. But when a U.S. Congressman says something as dangerous and potentially incendiary as threatening to bomb Mecca in retaliation for future Islamic terrorist attacks on the United States, the Senator must rise above personal pride and admit that he erred......and erred badly.
One Hand Clapping has some good thoughts on this as does Hugh Hewitt. They both link to others who share their thoughts with various degrees of of passion and intelligence. Note especially the comments section at the end of One Hand Clapping's post. It appears that there are more than a few folks out there who are getting really sick and tired of this terrorism idea and are willing to cheer Mr. Tancredo's off-the-cuff suggestion.
As a Christian, I find such an idea abhorrent and morally untennable. It is our moral "high ground" that will ultimately overcome the evil that confronts us, not the bombs and bullets of a superpower.
The Japanese and Germans would still be our enemies today were it not for the forgiveness and generosity we showed them following their defeat in WW II. Even with the questionable (they will always be questionable) decisions to fire bomb Tokyo and Dresden and to drop nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it should be obvious that the United States and its allies demonstrated tremendous restraint and wise discretion in offering an open hand rather than a clenched fist to the citizens of those countries both during and following the years of conflict.
As a matter of practical policy, an action such as that suggested by Rep. Tancredo, would doom, not only the United States, but the rest of the non-Muslim world to an eternity of conflict that would never end until every Muslim was dead or until everyone left alive in the world was a Muslim.
One Hand Clapping has some good thoughts on this as does Hugh Hewitt. They both link to others who share their thoughts with various degrees of of passion and intelligence. Note especially the comments section at the end of One Hand Clapping's post. It appears that there are more than a few folks out there who are getting really sick and tired of this terrorism idea and are willing to cheer Mr. Tancredo's off-the-cuff suggestion.
As a Christian, I find such an idea abhorrent and morally untennable. It is our moral "high ground" that will ultimately overcome the evil that confronts us, not the bombs and bullets of a superpower.
The Japanese and Germans would still be our enemies today were it not for the forgiveness and generosity we showed them following their defeat in WW II. Even with the questionable (they will always be questionable) decisions to fire bomb Tokyo and Dresden and to drop nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it should be obvious that the United States and its allies demonstrated tremendous restraint and wise discretion in offering an open hand rather than a clenched fist to the citizens of those countries both during and following the years of conflict.
As a matter of practical policy, an action such as that suggested by Rep. Tancredo, would doom, not only the United States, but the rest of the non-Muslim world to an eternity of conflict that would never end until every Muslim was dead or until everyone left alive in the world was a Muslim.
posted by Bird of Paradise at 9:07 PM
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