RESPONDING TO A MIGHTY HEART. Judea Pearl responds to the movie made about the murder of his son, Daniel Pearl, by terrorists and to remarks by the movie's director. Both seek to draw comparisons between terrorists and Guantánamo, the logic of a moral equivalence. Mr. Pearl writes in The New Republic:

Danny's tragedy demands an end to this logic. There can be no comparison between those who take pride in the killing of an unarmed journalist and those who vow to end such acts--no ifs, ands, or buts. Moral relativism died with Daniel Pearl, in Karachi, on January 31, 2002.

There was a time when drawing moral symmetries between two sides of every conflict was a mark of original thinking. Today, with Western intellectuals overextending two-sidedness to reckless absurdities, it reflects nothing but lazy conformity. What is needed now is for intellectuals, filmmakers, and the rest of us to resist this dangerous trend and draw legitimate distinctions where such distinctions are warranted.

We cannot afford to do the terrorists' work for them.

Technorati Tag: A Mighty Heart and Daniel Pearl and Judea Pearl and Mariane Pearl and Angelina Jolie.