Questions for Conservatives

[elfs]

Muslim extremists have adopted random but highly visible violence as an effective means of terrorizing those who would engage with the Islamic religion itself in order to criticize it.

There exists a thin veneer of Christian extremists who have openly embraced this technique (Paul Hill murdered a physician and a clinic nurse), although they couch their words in phrases such as "While my organization would never do such a thing, it is understandable that those who feel deeply yadda yadda yadda."

Questions for conservatives: Since both groups have the same techniques and the same objectives, should the FBI put as much pressure on the finances of anti-abortion activists as it has on Islamic charities?

Why isn't Scott Roeder, the man who murdered Dr. George Tiller, an enemy combatant?

Won't his being tried in a civilian court, as opposed to a military tribunal, embolden those who would emulate him?

If Guantanamo Bay remains the best place to house "the worst of the worst," shouldn't Roeder, who admits to this day that he feels no regret and no remorse, be incarcerated there, along with his fellow terrorists?

Comments

[caraig.livejournal.com]

I think it's rather telling that there has been no answers to these really culturally pertinent questions. :( Which is sad because this forms one of the greater left-right divides in contemporary politics.

[tagryn]

Seemed to me those were rhetorical questions, rather than actual queries looking for answers. Since many on the "other side" don't accept the underlying assumption that international terrorism is a domestic crime, rather than a military matter (which is where "enemy combatant" becomes a relevant term), there isn't a common foundation from which to argue out the ramifications. If the argument were limited just to domestic terrorism, which Elf!'s post mixes in with international terrorism, we'd also have to answer the same questions for left-leaning domestic terrorist groups as much as right-leaning ones.