April 21, 2005

Illuminating the Suicidal Nature of Liberal Policy That Seeks to Tie Our Hands on Terrorism

I keep thinking of this letter that was published in the LA Times earlier this month. It appears to be revealing, regarding the mindset of the Left with regard to anti-terrorist policy:

Not all right, Jack

I have recently stopped watching “24” for the very reasons Laura Miller elucidates so well in “No Fun Allowed ‘24’/7” (April 3). After Jack had demonstrated his willingness to maim and torture in order to save his country from those who would maim and torture, I thought — nay, hoped — that it was all a joke, a satire, being played out against these torturous times. But, as Miller points out, it ain’t no joke, McGee.

Jack’s not funny, and he doesn’t represent the hero I’m looking for to save the day. He’s not the American hero I grew up believing in, the one who would die rather than become like the enemy, but who won out because he or she would not let the ends justify the means.

“The one who would die rather than become like the enemy.” Doesn’t that just say it all? Doesn’t that just illuminate the suicidal nature of Liberal policy that seeks to tie our hands rather than letting us wipe out terrorists before they nuke us? I think it’s preferable not to die. The notion that by defending ourselves we are becoming like the enemy is absurd.

Some on the Left, such as the writer of this letter, cannot distinguish between terrorists who purposely kill civilians, and policies that purposely kill, not civilians, but the terrorists and the dictators that support them.

The Left responds that in both cases people are dying, and therefore that distinction is irrelevant; and, as in the letter, that it is better to die than to kill anybody, even someone who is trying to kill you. Given that the terrorists are trying to kill us, this is explicitly suicidal.

The letter says that the hero to emulate, ultimately “won out because he or she would not let the ends justify the means.” The letter-writer probably would advise Rapunzel to stay in her tower waiting to let her hair down to be rescued by a prince, because that’s what happens in fairy tales. Movies aren’t meant to be strategic advice. They’re entertainment. If a person’s going to make life-and-death decisions based on the whims of Hollywood screenwriters, why not pick movies like the James Bond series, or Star Wars, or Indiana Jones, where the hero never has any suicidal concerns about not shooting the people who are trying to kill him?