Moron TancredoHe doubles down in the
Denver Post today.
It's striking that he doesn't really want to debate the issue of bombing Mecca. Instead he portrays himself as fighting valiantly against the forces of political correctness:
Until "mainstream" Islam can bring itself to stop rationalizing terrorist attacks and start repudiating and purging people like Ali and Hajjar from its ranks who do, this war will continue. As long as this war goes on, being "offended" should be the least of anyone's worries.Here's his real argument:
But should we take any option or target off the table, regardless of the circumstances? Absolutely not, particularly if the mere discussion of an option or target may dissuade a fundamentalist Muslim extremist from strapping on a bomb-filled backpack, or if it might encourage "moderate" Muslims to do a better job cracking down on extremism in their ranks.If the mere discussion of bombing Mecca will dissuade a suicide bomber, then maybe it ought to be on the table. But what if it encourages a suicide bomber? What if the jihadists decide that the sacrifice of Mecca suits their ends by rallying all of Islam to the battle against the West?
Hugh Hewitt has a more substantive
debunking of Tancredo's column.
The other side of this issue is argued by
Legal XXX,
Baldilocks and
Protein Wisdom.
Legal XXX has some questions for Hewitt, which includes this floater:
5. Distinguish the potential targeting of Mecca in the War on Terror from the burning of Atlanta during the Civil War.I don't think the burning of Atlanta was a terrific idea, but we were at war with the Confederacy and it was an enemy city; one of the largest enemy cities in fact, whose production was geared to assisting the Confederacy in the war effort. We are not at war with Saudi Arabia, and Mecca is not an enemy city. There certainly are enemies of the US in that city, but for that matter there are enemies of the US in Paris.
And Atlanta is not the focal point of a religion with a billion adherents. The only people we angered with the sacking of Atlanta were the folks already fighting against us.
