A GOOD WAY TO JEOPARDIZE THE GWOT AND A FUTURE WORTH CREATING
Here's a trial balloon the supporters of the GWOT need to shoot down immediately before it can endanger our security, hamstring our war effort and jeopardize the entire strategy of " Connectivity" upon which a future worth creating depends.
Daniel Pipes ( hat tip
Collounsbury) has written
a controversial column implicitly endorsing internment for American Muslims. Perhaps I have misinterpreted things, if so, I invite Dr. Pipes to clarify. I'll post his rebuttal.
I'm not exactly soft on the Terror War. In many instances - notably on Gitmo detainees where I think we should have proceeded directly to war crimes trials for al Qaida members and upon conviction, imposed the death penalty - I'm to the right of the Bush administration. I've vigorously supported the idea of making the financial and clerical supporters of terrorism legitimate military targets. I have criticized highly placed idiots like Norman Mineta for impeding reasonable security precautions rooted in common sense counterintelligence principles on PC grounds of " discrimination". I'm all for prosecuting Muslim extremists like Sami al-Arian for supporting terror groups at war with this nation. Acting against individuals who conspire against the United States government or taking reasonable security precautions in war time is perfectly proper.
By juxtaposing the internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII with the above measures Dr. Pipes has sought to legitimize the idea of doing the same thing to American Muslims because they are Muslims.
Morally, this would be an appalling injustice - citing Michelle Malkin's book does not justify this crackpot scheme whatsoever. Economically it would be a massive waste of resources to round up and incarcerate millions of innocent people. Strategically, there really wouldn't be a better way to turn the United States into an international pariah. It would be another Abu Ghraib but tenfold in magnitude. Talk about disconnection ! What Western government - never mind an Arab one - would be on our side after that kind of policy is established ? To what extent would an attempt to campaign for this Pipes Plan aid the loony Left and the Islamist lobby in blocking and discrediting reasonable counterintelligence and security measures that protect all Americans ?
There are dumb ideas and then there are stridently dumb ones that manage, through a sheer audacity that fascinates onlookers, to disguise the degree to which they represent an impending disaster.
Daniel Pipes just gave us one of them.