Paul Berman, a classic liberal, wants to see the Left get engaged in the war against Islamo-fascism:
The left and the intellectuals in the Western countries ought to throw themselves into these debates and criticisms. But look what has happened. The left, in its great majority, has remained unengaged. It conducts itself as if the only struggle is between Bush and his enemies. You can see this in the last couple of months in the rise of tensions over the Iranian nuclear programme. The more Ahmadinejad threatened to obliterate Israel and build nuclear weapons the more people around the world wrote about…Bush! 'Oh, no! What is Bush going to do?' As if the problem here was Bush! Bush may well be a problem, but the first problem has surely got to be Ahmadinejad. A great campaign should arise to persuade the Iranians and their supporters not to think along these lines. And this is what should have been done with the Islamists and the Ba'athists. But it has not been done.
[HT: Michael Totten ]
2 comments:
While no liberal myself, I read Berman's book "Terror and Liberalism" a few years back with great interest. It is a very fine work that links the roots of Islamofascist terror to failed European leftist political theories. It is to the eternal shame of today's Left that they do not recognize Berman's enormous intellectual contribution to understanding and fighting the menace that is Islamofascist terrorism.
I appreciate your comments, Starling. I've purchased Berman's book and will read it.
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