Friday, January 12, 2007

A little soft around the edges? Romney on the "jihadists" threat, from his campaign website:

The defeat of this radical and violent faction of Islam must be achieved through a combination of American resolve, international effort, and the rejection of violence by moderate, modern, mainstream Muslims. An effective strategy will involve both military and diplomatic actions to support modern Muslim nations. America must help lead a broad-based international coalition that promotes secular education, modern financial and economic policies, international trade, and human rights.

"Romney wants the public to know that Jihadists are not an 'armed group of crazed maniacs in the hills of Afghanistan.' Rather, Romney says the United States is facing a 'far more sinister and broad-based extremist faction' with a 'very 8th century view of the world.'"

(ABC News, April 30, 2006)


By "soft around the edges", I point to the idea of "moderate, modern, mainstream Muslims". If they are "moderate" and "modern" and if they are "mainstream" in the sense of being in the mainstream of Western Civilization, then I question whether they are really Muslim. But, hey, this interesting species can call themselves whatever they want.

I'm also a little concerned about the idea of "a broad-based international coalition that promotes secular education, modern financial and economic policies, international trade, and human rights." If he is talking about pulling together an alternative to the UN, I am interesetd. If he is talking about working through what we have now, then I would question whether he is really any different from the rest of the politicians we seem to get from Massachusetts.

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