Tom Henderson's Challenge To WSU's College Republicans

Lewiston Tribune editorial writer (and my immediate boss at the paper) has issued a challenge to WSU's College Republicans. It's actually a silly challenge and an unnecessary one. A successful Islamofascism Awareness Week does not require that sympathizers be identified. I would consider it quite successful if we showed that the mainstream media and Democratic politicians are minimizing, ignoring or dismissing the threat. I would start by reminding people that Washington's senior senator indicated that we could eliminate terrorism by building daycare centers in Islamic counntries.

Anyway, here's Tom Henderson's editorial. Unless something more newsworthy happens in the next couple of days, I'll have an answer for Tom in my own column Saturday morning.

In the meantime, I suggest that the College Republicans get to work on Henderson's specific challenge. It shouldn't be hard.

Name one liberal with kind words for terrorists
Tom Henderson
October 2, 2007

Find one Democrat in national office - just one - who doesn't think Islamic terrorism poses a threat to the United States.

While you're at it, find one mainstream American newspaper that has taken the editorial position that Islamic terrorism is a false threat fabricated by the Bush administration.

Sure, you can find some left-wing crackpots expressing such opinions if you shop around long enough. Does that mean all liberals in politics, academia and the media think that way? Of course not.

Neo-Nazis are usually conservative, but that doesn't mean all conservatives are neo-Nazis.

Students behind Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week at Washington State University need to remember that when they hold activities Oct. 22 to 26. Like-minded students at 73 other colleges and universities are holding similar activities.

These events are built on a shaky foundation. Organizers say they want to confront the "big lies of the political left." Liberals supposedly tell people that President Bush created the war on terror for his own political ends. "Anyone who links Islamic radicalism to the war on terror is an 'Islamophobe,' " states a guide to organizing the week's activities at www.terrorismaware
ness.org. "According to the academic left, the Islamo-fascists hate us not because we are tolerant and free, but because we are 'oppressors.' "

Where are these mythical lefties?

Actor Charlie Sheen says America itself blew up the World Trade Center as an excuse for war, but Charlie is generally not considered one of the nation's deep thinkers. Ward Churchill, the disgraced University of Colorado professor, called the victims of 9/11 "little Eichmanns," but he only got attention for being a loon.

Liberals might say President Bush has created more terrorists than he's eliminated with his disastrous invasion of Iraq, but you hardly need to be liberal to make that observation. They might say global warming poses a greater threat than terrorism to Earth's long-term ability to sustain human life. They might even say terrorists have motivations that run deeper than the pat "they hate freedom" answer.

But no reasonable person pretends Islamic terrorists aren't dangerous or has kind words for merciless killers who plot the deaths of thousands of people. Understanding the enemy is not the same as sympathizing with him. - T.H.