There is One American

Submitted by Pat (United States), Aug 30, 2005 at 23:40

We have one American leader who is confronting Islamists and his name is Tom Tancredo. He is a Republican congressman from Colorado who has suggested that if Islamic terrorists set off a nuclear weapon in this country then we should consider bombing Mecca. For answering a hypothetical, he has been roundly condemned by CAIR and by opportunistic Democrats and foreign opinion makers.

However, I believe the point of this article is misplaced. Instead of asking where are the Americans, you should have asked the Europeans: what took you so long?

The US has been confronting terrorists for several decades and we have the hostage takings and downed office buildings and embassies to prove it. For most of that time our European allies have been placating the Islamists and distancing themselves from America and from Israel to prove their bona fides.

The 9/11 attacks were not directed at them, so there was no reason to change their domestic policies. Their natural horror at what was done to America made it easy to support action in Afghanistan, but that was as far as it went. Confronting their Muslim allies in the Middle East was out of the question. Even countries that openly supported terrorism, like Iran and Syria, were immune.

Europeans took the wrong lesson from the Madrid bombings. They blamed American policy in Iraq for "forcing" the Islamists to this extreme. This reaction only emboldened the Islamists, leading to the attacks on London.

Contrary to your assertions, America has not ignored the problems of Islamists in a democratic and pluralistic society. We've had Muslim women unwilling to remove their headscarves as required by law to obtain a drivers license. We've been fighting this fight and others in the courts of law, which is as it should be. Actions speak louder than words and the actions we've taken since 9/11 are ample proof of our intentions. Additional public statements are not necessary.

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