The Moose questions the focus of our outrage.
We are now in the midst of a media and political frenzy over the UAE port purchase. Both the left and the right have weighed in with their objections. Although the President has been adamant, it is a only a matter of time that the Administration capitulates and reverses course. Do we really believe that the President will cast his first veto over this? The writing is on the wall. This is Harriet Miers redux. If the President continues to defy the conservative base on this issue, kiss the House and maybe the Senate good-bye - the base will be deflated and demoralized.
It is not wise to allow a foreign power with past ties to the Taliban to have any control over our ports. And politicians who claim that this controversy has nothing to do with the fact that this is an Arab owned company are being completely disingenuous. The real problem is lax port and border security. However, this dispute is far less significant than the ongoing global Jihad against Western freedom. Yes, the Moose is referring to the cartoon riots.
Politicians are falling over themselves to denounce the UAE port deal, but they are largely silent or ambivalent about the cartoon riots. Parenthetically, it is deeply ironic that some of the politicians who are in a rage over the port deal want to make certain that a FISA judge has the last word on whether the NSA can intercept a call from a terrorist in Pakistan and his contact on the dock at the port of Baltimore. It is easy to take a shot a shoddy port security, but it is another matter to take a firm position that may get them into trouble with the international or domestic political correctness police.
Of course, one can be both for port security and for the uncompromising defense of Western freedom against the Jihadist attack on Denmark. However, most politicians are taking the easy route and ignoring the latter outrage. It is definitely conceivable that a port (or our porous borders) may someday provide an entry for terrorists - we must remain vigilant. But at this very moment, there is an ongoing, worldwide assault on Western freedom. And the death toll is mounting. In the last few days, Muslim rioters have killed Christians in the streets of Nigeria and churches are being burned.
There is no clear partisan advantage to be gained in strongly denouncing the cartoon Jihad and unambiguously stand with the Danes. However, in this long, twilight struggle against Jihadism, this is a moment that requires and unqualified defense of the West.
Christopher Hitchens put it well,
"A small democratic country with an open society, a system of confessional pluralism, and a free press has been subjected to a fantastic, incredible, organized campaign of lies and hatred and violence, extending to one of the gravest imaginable breaches of international law and civility: the violation of diplomatic immunity. And nobody in authority can be found to state the obvious and the necessary -that we stand with the Danes against this defamation and blackmail and sabotage. Instead, all compassion and concern is apparently to be expended upon those who lit the powder trail, and who yell and scream for joy as the embassies of democracies are put to the torch in the capital cities of miserable, fly-blown dictatorships. Let's be sure we haven't hurt the vandals' feelings."
As Hitchens states, this is a Kristallnacht moment - not just against Denmark, but against the entire Western notion of freedom. If politicians want to chastise the President on an issue that is of immediate consequence, criticize this Administration for failing to clearly and consistently stand with our ally, Denmark, in her fight against Jihadism. -- | 
Email
this post
