Yes, You Too Can Be A Moderate!

At The Corner, Andrew McCarthy addresses

this notion that we are not supposed to concern ourselves with someone's radical politics as long as she (at least ostensibly) rejects violence and agrees to work through a political process.

This is not just a Democrat problem. Not to beat a dead horse, but it is a big part of the Bush administration's democracy project (of which McCain is clearly a fan). Our general approach to radical Islam has boiled down to: as long as you are not actively blowing up a building, at least today, you are a moderate; as long as you pledge (however convincingly) to work through a political process, we're not going to trouble you with a lot of questions about what you hope to achieve through that process. This is how we end up in the sack with Fatah, Dawa and the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, to name just a few. This elevation of process over substance is how we delude ourselves into thinking we can usefully negotiate with Ahmadinejad or Kim Jong Il.

Bottom line:

But we are undermining our ability to condemn radicalism here when we wink at it as viable politics elsewhere.

Once you expand the definition of who is a moderate and who is an acceptable negotiating partner, there is no turning back the clock.

The same of course applies to Israel as well, where the situation has accelerated a notch and the idea of negotiating even with Hamas becomes more acceptable and voiced more loudly.

Technorati Tag: Terrorism.