Confronting the Great Divide

Tony Blankley has a fantastic piece in the Washington Times today.

It would appear that the great divide in both public opinion and between politicians is not Republican-Democrat, liberal-conservative, pro- or anti-Bush or even pro- or anti-war (or, in Europe: pro-or anti-American).

Rather, the great divide is between those, such as me, who believe that the rise of radical Islam poses an existential threat to Western Civilization; and those who believe it is a nuisance, if episodically a very dangerous nuisance.

For those in the latter category, the great thrust of modern history exemplified in Francis Fukuyama's concept of "The End of History" continues onward. The great secular triumph of (more or less) free markets, a world economy, democracy, individual rights, socialized economic security and their management by merit-based technocrats will be an inevitable continuity in human affairs. The episodic terrorist violence, so far killing far less people than die in car crashes or from lung cancer each year, does not justify re-ordering our social priorities. It does not justify any significant intrusions into civil liberties. It does not justify a major shift of tax revenues from social spending to war and homeland security programs. It certainly does not justify fighting wars on the other side of the world that kill and grievously wound painful numbers of American and European soldiers — and even greater numbers of local residents in the war zones.

Read the rest.

The current administration and the military is fighting on numerous fronts around the world to maintain our liberties, while those who claim of the mantle of civil liberties fight us tooth and nail every step of the way, aided and abetted in their perfidy by the truculent Democrats and a recalcitrant media. A bitter irony.

The sad reality is we'll never be able to put aside our differences in this country, as the angry left has made rational discussion an impossibility and, because of their intractability in the war we're in, we're likely to suffer calamitous times in the years ahead.

Sadly, even then they'll likely deny a problem exists.