We are all descended from cavemen who broke the skulls of their enemies with rocks for fun or profit. But that hardly mitigates the crimes of a man who does the same thing today. I see no problem judging the behavior of the Islamic State and its apologists from the vantage point of the West's high horse, because we've earned the right to sit in that saddle.
Jonah Goldberg(I)t is simply wrong to confuse cowardice with appeasement. Cowardice is a failing of character. Appeasement is a failure of policy. Stalin appeased Hitler when he signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Stalin was an evil character, to be sure. But cowardice really isn't the first word that comes to mind when thinking of Stalin ' that word is โsexy.โ I'm kidding, I'm kidding.
Jonah GoldbergBut you're never taught in schools - we don't teach anyone in public schools that government is the problem. We don't teach anyone in college that government is the problem - except maybe a handful of sort of unique, conservative schools. But mainstream media never talks as if government is the problem.
Jonah GoldbergIn the weeks prior to the war to liberate Afghanistan, a good friend of mine would ask me almost every day, โWhy aren't we killing people yet?โ And I never had a good answer for him. Because one of the most important and vital things the United States could do after 9/11 was to kill people. Call it a โforceful response,โ โdecisive actionโ ' whatever. Those are all nice euphemisms for killing people. And the world is a better place because America saw the necessity of putting steel beneath the velvet of those euphemisms.
Jonah Goldberg