You know what? Let the terrorists win - FP's Daniel W. Drezner

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http://drezner.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/08/16/you_know_what_let_the_terrorists_win

You know what? Let the terrorists win.
Posted By Daniel W. Drezner Monday, August 16, 2010 - 5:13 PM Share


You wouldn't know it from the blog, but for the past week I have been astonishingly productive. I've written long-overdue papers, copy-edited long-overdue page proofs, prepped long-overdue syllabi, refereed long-overdue manuscripts... you get the drift.

Why the burst of productivity? Well, one reason is that I've been avoiding the two Big Questions haunting the foreign policy blogosphere for the past week or so:

1) Jeffrey Goldberg's lead essay in The Atlantic on Iran; and

2) The whole mosque-in-lower-Manhattan imbroglio.

Sooooooo.... now that I've fully caught up in my day job, I guess it's time to wade in. Let's start with the hallowed ground of the former Burlington Coat Factory Ground Zero Mosque Cordoba House Park51. I have only two (printable) thoughts on the matter, so let's get them out of the way:

1) Of course the mosque should be built. There is no, repeat, no ground for government at any level to prevent the construction of this structure on private property. The political and moral arguments against this mosque appear to require those making the arguments to fall back on the moral equivalency between the United States and Saudi Arabia. The other objections I've heard/seen on this issue have been either inane or curiously uninformed about the geography about Manhattan (note to smart conservatives: now would be an excellent moment to point out that there is some rough equivalency to these Ground Zero Mosque criticisms and arguments against opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling).

2) I'm getting really sick of "the terrorists will win" line of criticism being levied against those wishing to prevent construction of the mosque. Over the past few days, I've seen bipartisan criticism of the mosque criticism along the lines of, "this line of argumentation is the best way to help Al Qaeda." Exhibit A of this is Mark Halperin's plea to the GOP to drop this issue:

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