The Moose comments on the war against liberalism.
Someday, progressives in American and the worldwide left might recognize that the greatest threat to liberalism is not the Bush Administration. Of course, the Moose is not holding his breath.
And, parenthetically, the failure of Islam to reject its radical and extremist faction must give the promoters of the Arab democracy project pause. The recent victory of Hamas and the Danish intifada indicates that this will be a long and laborious process with no guarantee of near term success. An illiberal culture cannot produce a liberal democracy.
However, one would have thought that 9/11 would have awakened progressives that there is the pernicious force of Jihadism which seeks to vanquish all that liberals hold dear - fundamental human and individual rights, the rights of minorities, the rights of women, Jews, Christians, gays, unions and free-thinkers.
The recent radical Muslim cartoon jihad against all things Danish should serve as a wake up call about the threat (If only the frail sensibilities of the radical Islamists extended to the vicious anti-Jewish sentiment that is prevalent in the Muslim world.) However, if the beheading of Daniel Pearl, the slaughter of Theo Van Gogh and innumerable other inhuman outrages did not concentrate the progressive mind, this latest outrage will probably not.
Where are the Moveon ads mobilizing civilized opinion against reactionary Islam and the promotion of buying Danish? Do they not see the greatest threat to humanitarian values as Jihadists who behead journalists, take hostage peace activists and apply fatwas on writers and cartoonists? Are all of the left's enemies limited to all things Bush?
Perhaps the Moose is being unfair. Now and then a progressive politician will mouth concerns about the "war against terror". However, their heart usually is not in it - what really gets their dander up and their blood pumping is the Bush-Cheney conspiracy to shred the Constitution and to wage wars on behalf of Hallibruton.
When was the last time you heard a lefty politician in America or abroad speak about the Jihadist threat to progressive values? Yes, there are an eloquent few defenders of progressive values against radical Islam - but they are a distinct minority. Tony Blair is exemplary in this fight, but he is usually a lonely left figure standing against the prevailing sentiment of appeasement toward the Jihadists, even within his own party and government.
Today, the Senate Judiciary Committee will begin hearings on the Administration's surveillance program. That is their oversight responsibility. Last week, the Director of Intelligence gave a sobering overview of the multiplicity of threats to America, but it seemed that all the Intelligence Committee's Democrats could focus on was not Al Qaeda or an Iranian Hilter obtaining a nuke, but the possibility that a NSA had intercepted a call between two terrorist suspects without a judge's approval.
It would be nice if some of the ardent liberals on the Judiciary Committee spoke to the threat of radical Jihadism against our progressive values and underscored that it is the major threat to our civilization. After all, one dirty bomb or suicide attack will render the entire ACLU agenda obsolete. And the freedoms that we hold dear are under an international assault by radical Islam.
Conservatives should not be the prime defenders of international liberal values. Progressives can bring an important moral witness to the fight against Jihadism - just as hawkish liberals such as Humphrey and Meany did during the Cold War. But, despite the vile brutality and the raging mobs of radical Islam, too many lefties view that the main threat to their values is the person who sits in the Oval Office or clear sighted progressives such as Joe Lieberman.
Sorry Mr. and Ms. Moveon and your lefty allies. You are blissfully ignoring the greatest threat to our nation's freedom and security which is the deeply reactionary force of radical Islam. Nixonism is long dead but Jihadism is alive. Since Moveon has perfected the morph ad, how about one transforming Ahmadinejad into Hitler? That would defy the CW about you folks!
Buy Danish. -- | 
Email
this post
