March 14, 2002

Cal Thomas | Syndicated columnist | Published: Mar 13, 2002

March 14, 2002

I didn’t write this. Jonah Goldberg of National Review did. Listen: “We have very good reasons to have negative attitudes toward Arab countries. Even if September 11 never happened…we would still have a legitimate reason to have ‘negative views’ toward Arab countries.

“You know why? Because they are undemocratic, stagnating cultures led by tyrants who drink daily from a heady cocktail of brutality (and) corruption… I am so fed up with the criticism that it is ‘arrogant’ to express such opinions. Fine. It’s arrogant. I plead guilty. That doesn’t mean it’s not true, does it?”

Goldberg goes on to say that the same people who complain about the Florida vote in the last election have nothing to say about countries that execute opponents. In Saudi Arabia, it is illegal for five guys to stand on a street corner and talk about politics.

“Enough moral equivalence,” he says. They’re killing our men in Afghanistan and some among us are worried about their well-fed prisoners in Guantanomo who even get the clerics of their choice.”

It’s nice to have a little perspective, isn’t it? I’m Cal Thomas in Washington.

March 14, 2002