Fighting Fire With Fire?
I'm a week late or so on this story but it seems to still be resonating among my journalism colleagues, so I thought I would bring it up for debate here.
A U.S. Representative from Colorado, Tom Tancredo, told a talk radio host that the U.S. government should think about threatening leading Islamic clerics with the bombing of holy sites like Mecca to persuade them to do more to stop the extremists among their ranks who are the source of so many terrorist attacks around the world.
I don't think he was saying that we would actually bomb those sites, but I think he was trying to make the point that terror groups have no home base, so you have to go after something that is precious to the religious or organizational leaders who can sway their opionions.
What do you think of that approach?
A U.S. Representative from Colorado, Tom Tancredo, told a talk radio host that the U.S. government should think about threatening leading Islamic clerics with the bombing of holy sites like Mecca to persuade them to do more to stop the extremists among their ranks who are the source of so many terrorist attacks around the world.
I don't think he was saying that we would actually bomb those sites, but I think he was trying to make the point that terror groups have no home base, so you have to go after something that is precious to the religious or organizational leaders who can sway their opionions.
What do you think of that approach?
posted by cvo @ 3:45 PM
4 Comments:
At 8:23 PM,
Unknown said…
My wife thinks that we should make such a threat only if we are actually willing to follow through on it. Moreover, she thinks that if we actually did bomb, say, Mecca, then we'd never be forgiven for it.
I think that we should try to normalize our relationship with Muslims as much as possible. One might argue that Islam is fundamentally incompatible with Western democracy, but I am not convinced of this. Some subset of the Muslim world wants to make a violent holy war against Western culture. If we in the West agree to make public, official, inflammatory remarks about a global conflict with Islam per se, then we are likely to justify the cause of the extremists.
My understanding is that the Bush administration's official policy is opposed not to Islam but to terrorism. This seems, to Vanesssa and me, the right approach.
At 10:49 AM,
cvo said…
No doubt it would be a mistake to bomb Mecca, but I think the point he was trying to make was that Islamic leaders should be doing more to quell the roots of extremism within the followers.
For instance, a group of American Muslim leaders issued a fatwa yesterday against any Islam followers who commit acts of terrorism. That's the kind of response that the Bush Administration and others are looking for from Islamic leaders in the Middle East because they have some influence on the extremists. So far, those leaders are doing nothing to discourage terrorism and appear to be ENCOURAGING terrorist acts in some cases.
The War on Terror is a misnomer because you can't wage a war on terrorism. You can only try to protect yourself from terrorist acts. Most of the time, you don't know that someone is a terrorist until they commit their first (and usually last) act of terrorism, and terrorists really don't have a home base anymore.
Al-Qaeda understands that they have to work in autonomous cells to carry out their plans.
How do you combat that?
At 4:25 PM,
Michelle said…
I will be brief as I am without any form of internet at the moment except for brief excursions from Sean and the kids to pay bills at the library--how lame is that? Please hook up my internet Verizon!!! I believe that this is a very bad idea and even the rhetoric should not be visited to influence Islamic clerics. I agree with Curtis that we have to be alert in our everyday lives as individuals against terrorism, but retaliation agains a religious institution will lead to an escalation that would be devastating. When you open this door what is to say it would not spin out of control into a situation such as the Jews endured. Furthermore, Muslims who do not currently support the means and methods of the extremists would have a platform from which to unite.
At 4:26 PM,
Michelle said…
P.S.
Good to have you back on site Curtis.
Post a Comment
<< Home