Waiting for the Adults

I think I'm overusing the description "Childish." I've been taken to task for it before, but it just seems to fit a lot of the time, when talking about Conservatives and the War on Terror. The latest example comes from David Limbaugh, in which he has the audacity to wait for adults to implement his childish world view.

The answer is Obama is a liberal and he has deliberately surrounded himself with like-minded, weak-willed leftists who are congenitally incapable of grasping the presence of evil in the world. They are blind to the reality that the terrorists hate us because of their ideology and theology and not because of any alleged misconduct at a detention facility. Do you really think it's plausible that people who engage in the brutal tactics these people engage in would bother recruiting on the absurd bases that Obama claims?

It was bad enough when these liberal Democrats were making such arguments for the cynical partisan motive of undermining President Bush and enhancing their own political positions. That was inexcusable. But now it's even worse. These arguments are just painfully reckless and, sorry, stupid. Oh, how I long for a return of the adults to Washington.

OK. Here's the argument - Terrorists are bad for reasons of their own and don't care about Guantanamo or the abuse of prisoners. A few points.

1. This does accurately describe a handful of the terrorists leaders.

2. It does not accurately describe the Islamic world or the Third world or the rest of the world as a whole. Most people have shifting views of everything.

3. Terrorists are recruiting - the people they are recruiting do not share that Manichean world view initially.

4. When Terrorists recruit, it helps to portray the United States as evil and depraved. It's even easier when we do things that are evil and depraved. Like say Abu Ghraib from a few years back.

5. In order to root out terrorists we need the support of countries in the middle east; both governmental support and support from the people of those countries. Such support is less likely to materialize or be full throated if the people beleave that America is doing bad things, particularly bad things to Muslims.

6. The United States has done bad things to Muslims - more to the point, in some cases they have done these things to non-terrorists that happened to get swept up.

It's childish to pretend that everybody is what they are and that nothing can change that. And many Conservatives, like David Limbaugh, suffer from this form of childishness.