I stand corrected. I reread the article and it's now clear that Peters is worse than Howard Dean. Dean at least reached out to NASCAR-types, while Peters is calling us KKK racists. Also, I don't think Dean ever went so far as to accuse conservatives of wanting to murder a billion Muslims.
I can't believe I ever thought nice thoughts about this guy.
well, at least he approves in our taste in bedspreads...
It's more like most of us want to see a billion muslims abandon their superstition and join the modern world.
"I stand corrected. I reread the article and it's now clear that Peters is worse than Howard Dean. "
Prior to whatever he said recently, he certainly was *NOT* worse than Howard Dean, he is not a Liberal, was an excellent reporter on Iraq and GWOT, and wasn't as far as I could tell un hinged in any way.
Having just read it, I think Peters is way off base, but certainly not a Howard Dean. If there are 'nuke Mecca' people who think we need to fight 1 billion muslims and think of muslims as Peters says they do, they need to scolded as idiots. (When it happens here on FR too). We have to distinguish between the great danger of radicalized Islam and the non-danger that most Muslims pose.
But Peters' column is making a strawman argument that critics of Islam are attacking Muslims as a whole. And his defense of Islam and Muslims is curious. He mentions Indonesia, but seems unaware of sectarian violence there (or he would point it out as an exception). one example: Muslim thugs beheaded some Indonesian girls for the crime of being Christian last year. Such a crime would be unbelievable if I had not had the misfortune of actually seeing the pictures of it. Horrible.
If we want to be honorable conservatives,
it would be wrong to engage in name-calling (and it was wrong for Peters to do so) and better to talk Peters off the ledge, explaining why orthodox Islam and redical clerics are a serious danger to an extent that Peters might not understand.
Peters column:
http://www.nypost.com/seven/09072006/postopinion/opedcolumnists/islam_haters__an_enemy_within_opedcolumnists_ralph_peters.htm
e-mail to Taranto about his endorsement of Peters
http://www.amnation.com/vfr/archives/006372.html
Jihadwatch response:
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/013032.php