After all, the terrorists of the world have clearly been cowed by cruise missiles launched against them, by military strikes, and even by full-scale invasions. Yes, Tom Tancredo is on the “stand tall, talk like an idiot” mode again:
Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo’s campaign stood by his assertion that bombing holy Muslim sites would serve as a good “deterrent” to prevent Islamic fundamentalists from attacking the United States, his spokeswoman said Friday.
“This shows that we mean business,” said Bay Buchanan, a senior Tancredo adviser. “There’s no more effective deterrent than that. But he is open-minded and willing to embrace other options. This is just a means to deter them from attacking us.”
I mean, when you have the Bush White House touting an military option as “reprehensible” and “absolutely crazy” — that should be a warning sign.
“If it is up to me, we are going to explain that an attack on this homeland of that nature would be followed by an attack on the holy sites in Mecca and Medina,” Tancredo said. “That is the only thing I can think of that might deter somebody from doing what they would otherwise do. If I am wrong, fine, tell me, and I would be happy to do something else. But you had better find a deterrent, or you will find an attack.”
Given that extremists in, oh, let’s just pick out Iraq, have been more than happy to bomb Muslim holy sites, religious leaders, mosques, and freaking funerals — I have no doubt there are plenty of folks who not only would not be deterred by such a threat, but would actually be incented by it.
The only reason I’d want Tancredo for president is it means he wouldn’t be my US Representative any more.
(via Amanda)
I thought the morons that originally suggested that idea gave up after the press slammed them for it a year or so back.
Does it kinda scare you to know that people in positions of power actually like that idea?
I agree Web. The problem with losers like Tom is they never learn — not even from the obvious. Attacking Mecca would do nothing to deter terrorists, as Dave points out, and it would go very far towards uniting the whole Muslim world against us.
Or, even better, let’s consider the opposite. Would *we* in the US back down before an analogous threat? Or would we simply say that we’d escalate matters even further?
I think there would be a covert op were some bad ass unit in the military does a small attack to send a message. Meanwhile the Government would talk about using political means to solve the issue to us.
Interesting question that’s hard to answer with Bush in office. Who knows what he would actually do?