If You Weren't A Moron You'd Realize That You Just Answered Your Own Question

Bret Stephens has a horrendous column (subscription required) on the editorial page of today's WSJ. Though I suppose that, from his myopic, blindered viewpoint it makes perfect sense. Bret, let me let you in on a little secret. Islam isn't out to get anyone; its people who are out to get us. Particular people, with particular agendas and particular theologies, who cannot be said to represent Islam as a whole. The reason that liberals find it difficult to confront Islam because we understand this fact. Muslims have a right to exist and practice their preferred religion in peace. The fact that some individuals who wish us ill operate under the guise of Islamic theology doesn't give us carte blanche to suppress Islam in general. Though I suppose that, if you refuse to acknowledge the distinction between one Muslim and another, your article makes perfect sense. Otherwise you are faced with the daunting task of selectively fighting particular individuals and ideologies while simultaneously defending the rights of individuals and ideologies which look superficially similar. That, in a nutshell, is why liberals don't want to just charge in and nuke the entire Middle East back to the stone age.