Finding Moral Clarity

If you check out my profile, you'll see that one of my favorites is A War Like No Other by VDH. The guy's website is great too, and here's a link to a must-read analysis of the conflict in the Middle East:

http://www.victorhanson.com/articles/hanson080406.html

Anyone who is unclear on the moral issues at stake in the conflict between terror and freedom should read this piece. Correction: everyone should read this piece. I'm pretty clear on the right and wrong and I still enjoyed his ability to get to the heart of the matter.

You've heard it from me before, and I'll say it again: this is clash-of-civilizations type of serious. We're staring down a major confrontation with Islam, like it or not. We appease, we delay, we postpone such a reckoning at our own peril; the threat only gets bigger with each passing day. And shame on American politicians who suggest neutrality in the conflict. There's not a more despicable position than looking the other way as an ally is threatened because we're too cowardly to face the brutal facts of reality.

Does this sound familiar?

"First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist--so I said nothing. Then they came for the Social Democrats, but I was not a Social Democrat--so I did nothing. Then they came for the trade unionists, but I was not a trade unionist. And then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew--so I did little. Then when they came for me, there was no one left who could stand up for me."

Martin Niemöller, a Protestant minister, who was an opponent of the Nazis.

(source: http://www.humanities.uci.edu/~rmoeller/body/lec2_ns.html)