Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Declaring War on Islam

From a WFLA radio interview with Representative Tom Tancredo (R-CO; proud owner of a 100 rating from the Christian Coalition) [emphasis added]:

Tancredo: You know, there are things that you could threaten to do before something like that [a nuclear attack within U.S. borders] happens, and then you may have to do it afterwards, that are quite draconian.

Interviewer: Such as?

Tancredo: Well, what if you said something like, um, y'know, if this happens in the United States, um, and we determine that it's the result of, uh, extremist fundamentalist Muslims, um, you know, you could, you could take out their holy sites.

Interviewer: You're talking about bombing Mecca.

Tancredo: Yeah.


Has there been a more revealing moment this year than when Republican Representative Tom Tancredo, speaking on the public airwaves, suggested that the United States might be capable, not just of threatening a nuclear attack on Mecca—Islam's holiest site—but of actually carrying out such an attack?

Let me put this in fairly simple terms: Al Jazeera now broadcasts to the region the words of Tom Tancredo, certainly putting America's men and women in uniform in greater danger. No more needs to be said about the motives of conservatives.