Front Page Mag has reproduced Thomas Bowden’s op-ed on Columbus day under the title “Columbus Day: Another Weapon Against Terrorism.” From the article:
We cannot win a war in which Islamic totalitarians loudly proclaim that their way of life is superior–while liberals trot out the cliches of multiculturalism, claiming that there is no objective standard by which to judge a society good or evil, and conservatives downplay the religious motives driving Islamic terrorism, clinging to the notion that religion promotes peace despite blood-soaked centuries of evidence to the contrary.
This moral uncertainty is dividing Americans into two equally ineffectual camps. Liberals, mortified by world opposition, want to demilitarize the conflict in favor of a criminal-justice approach, granting every Muslim killer his day in court. Conservatives, although seemingly willing to address the conflict militarily, wring their hands if a stray bullet chips gold leaf off the dome of a mosque.
Americans can escape this quagmire of moral vacillation only by becoming fully, rationally convinced that our values are objectively worthwhile–that they are worth pursuing, worth upholding, and worth defending, by force if necessary. One way to attain such moral certainty is to understand, with full clarity, why we celebrate Columbus Day.
See the full article for further elaboration.