A biiiiiiiiiiiiig debate is underway on the centrist blog The Yellow Line over a hypothetical horror question posed and an answer. A SLEW of comments which are worth reading themselves.
Alan Stewart Carl’s post begins:
A week ago, U.S. Representative Tom Tancredo (R-CO) was asked in an interview what he thought should be the U.S. response if terrorists used a nuclear weapon against us. He responded:
”Well, what if you said something like — if this happens in the United States, and we determine that it is the result of extremist, fundamentalist Muslims, you know, you could take out their holy sites.” When the host asked him if he meant ”bombing Mecca,” he said, ”Yeah.”
Not surprisingly, such remarks have received wide-spread condemnation and calls for Tancredo to apologize or face discipline from the House of Representatives. While the House has not acted on this matter, it is rather surprising that this has become and issue. After all, bombing Mecca, even in the wake of a nuclear terrorist attack, would be an act of extreme brutality and unjustifiable vengeance.
And yet, Tancredo defends his remarks in today’s Denver Post, saying that we absolutely must leave all options on the table and a threat to hit Islamic holy sites may be what’s needed to persuade moderate Muslims to start fighting terrorism with greater intensity.
Read it all and all the comments by CLICKING HERE. Also see the great post at American Centrist.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.