The American Standard Bearer

The following political cartoon appeared this week in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, a leftist rag with circulation that is dropping like a stone:

The obvious conclusion to be drawn here is that al-Qaida and the U.S. are virtually indistinguishable when it comes to the subject of torture. As an aside, it’s interesting to note that Luckovich uses the image of an American flag instead of “U.S. Military” or even just “U.S.” to indentify the fellow on the right. This is in keeping with the American left’s philosophy that America itself is an evil force on the world stage.

There of course can be no legitimate comparison between the humiliation of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and the hideous murders of Americans at the hands of al-Qaida. Luckovich underscores the serious flaw in the logic that he and his leftist comrades bring to the table with the following comment, “If we want to succeed in Iraq, we have to remember that our most powerful weapon, greater than any bomb we could drop, is our moral authority. With the Bush administration ignoring the Geneva conventions and deciding that in some instances, torture is acceptable, Abu Ghraib and Gitmo resulted.”

The leftist belief that there are no absolutes and that therefore, everything must be viewed through the lense of equivalence is at the root of their myopic inability to distinguish between justice and true evil. Yet, the notion that the problem is not U.S. “imperialism” but rather, the foundational concept within Islam that non-believers must be snuffed is beginning to emerge in the international dialogue.

Ibrahim Al-Buleihi of Saudi Arabia’s Shura Council recently pointed to Islam as the cause of terrorism in the world. On a Saudi TV program in May, Al-Buleihi responded to the suggestion that certain “elements” of Muslim society are bringing unwanted retribution to the larger Muslim society when they produce “images of slaughtering the other” that are broadcast on television around the world.

Al-Buleihi said, “In my opinion, we should not describe these people as deviant. This is the product of our culture…a culture that believes the other does not deserve to live, and is an absolute enemy with whom no understanding is possible.” In other words, he rejects the myth that is promoted by the elitists in our country that terrorism is the result of “extremism” or “fundamentalism” and instead, places the burden squarely on mainstream Islam itself.

Meanwhile, the media and political class here in the U.S. continue to depict this emerging world struggle as the inevitable result of “fundamentalism,” essentially saying that anyone who takes the tenets of their faith seriously are no better than the terrorists.

Not only does that erroneous notion hurt the positive force of Christian and Jewish fundamentism, but it ignores the true evil that is spreading like a cancer. And by dragging the American flag through the mud, Luckovitch and the other despicable traitors at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution are giving “aid and comfort” to our enemies.