Every once in a while, I have noticed Kos's front-page posts on Jonah Goldberg. I have read them and been amazed at Jonah's often twisted logic, but have generally paid them scant attention.
This morning, I was pointed in the direction of Jonah's June 9th column by the Toronto Star's excellent Antonia Zerbisias in which he blames Canada for encouraging the growth of homegrown terror cells by not being tougher on terrorism.
Canada is arguably the most deluded industrialized nation in the world. Because elite Canadians think the U.S. is the font of the world's problems, they think being different than the U.S. and sucking up to the United Nations will buy them grace on the cheap. They claim to be "a nation of peacekeepers," but they rank 50th among U.N. peacekeeper nations in the number of troops sent. They've bravely contributed to the war in Afghanistan, where 2,300 troops still serve, but refused to join the effort in Iraq, believing that jihadists would honor such fine distinctions. That was awfully nice of them. Too bad nice has nothing to do with it.
Canada wrongly makes a distinction between Afghanistan and Iraq, seems to be the point Jonah is trying to make here. Jonah, if only the US had made such a distinction, which was evident to millions and millions around the world, maybe we wouldn't have such worries. Maybe if the US had gone after Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, had pursued OBL with the same vigor with which they pursued the Iraqi Oil Ministry, had not invaded a sovereign state that posed no threat to the US in order to further the Risk-based fantasies of some rich, delusional white men ("first Iraq, then Irkutsk"), we might not have conditions which encourage the formation of these cells.
He goes on (unfortunately):
Indeed, there's good reason to believe that niceness is part of the problem, not the solution. Many Canadians (and Americans and Europeans) cling to a deep-seated belief that more multiculturalism, more interfaith dialogue, more "understanding," more Western apologies, more acceptance of Sharia, more "niceness" will fix the problem.
Antonia Zerbisias calls him on this one as well.
...less understanding has never solved a thing. It sure beats invading countries, bombing them to smithereens and then acting all surprised when they strike back with terrorist tactics.
Yep. Down with interfaith dialogue. Down with understanding. (I removed Jonah's "air quotes" because I didn't really see the need for them. Try as you might to cheapen the word by using them, it still sounds like a pretty reasonable approach to me.) To support his point, Jonah cites an expert from the American Enterprise Institute who blames multiculturalism for radical Islam. Big surprise there.
Anotonia's blog contains one additional item that bears mentioning. Though not directly related to the Jonah item, it comes from a similar place. From Knight-Ridder:
In a story on Tuesday about growing concern that terrorists might infiltrate the United States by entering from Canada, the Knight Ridder News Service wrongly said that several of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists had entered this country from Canada. While widely reported in the aftermath of Sept. 11, that assertion is incorrect.
This is the Canadian-equivalent of "both parties received Abramoff money". People who should know better continue to repeat this. It's been done here. It is not true. It has never been true.
Canada isn't perfect. But I'll take tolerance, multiculturalism, and civil rights over fear of boogity- man any day.