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April 25, 2007
Your Wednesday barf
Tony Blankley makes a pretty convincing case that we're all doomed. As Blankley points out, he'll continue to try to persuade people that "jihad" is not, to quote Mark Steyn, "a harmless concept meaning "decaf latte with skimmed milk and cinnamon sprinkles". But people have made their mind up, and perceptions of the threat of Islamic jihad are, one way or the other, the driver for all things political:
Every political decision -- from the Iraq war appropriation vote this week, to the Patriot Act, to the status of Guantanamo Prison, to NSA intercepts, to the presidential election -- is seen through our conceptual squint of the threat or non-threat from radical Islam....
while others and I will continue to make our case in public, it seems probably inevitable that the correctness or incorrectness of our views will only become persuasive to the multitude when history teaches its cruel, unavoidable lessons. It was ever thus, which is why history is strewed with broken nations and civilizations that couldn't read the writing on the wall. Of course, it is also strewed with sad hulks of false predictors of doom.
Blankley's point seems to be that the debate is over because no one's listening anymore. There's no "undecided" votes left to be counted. And he seems disheartened by the inability of both political leaders and pundits to rally Americans in the face of the jihadis. It's not an optimistic picture.
Posted by bill at April 25, 2007 08:43 AM
Comments
I think Blankley's point is more that people have short memories, and it won't be until there's another 9/11 or 7/7 (London bombings) style attack in America before we collectively recall who and what we're fighting. Ironically, in terms of making the case for fighting the war on terrorism, the Bush Administration is a victim of its own success in preventing any terrorist attacks since 9/11.
Posted by: Raygun ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.citizen-journal.net/nav-commenters.gif)
at April 25, 2007 11:33 AM
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