Tancredo Advocates MAD

Rep. Tom Tancredo told an overflow crowd in Highlands Ranch Saturday morning that the United States should enter a relationship of "mutually assured destruction (MAD)" with the "Muslim world", just like the cold war with the Soviet Union. Those were his exact words. He didn't take questions, of course, because he doesn't actually care what anyone has to say. He commented that he believes politicians listen too much to real people's concerns, which he terms "political correctness."

Tancredo made the remarks as part of a rambling presentation on a number of issues at the start of a forum primarily dealing with Veterans Administration and Social Security issues. At another point in his remarks, he commented that he believes the main problem with the Veterans Administration is that it has too many lawyers. He presented as fact that the VA has about 900 lawyers, and said this might be the largest of any Federal agency. The VA Administrator, who was next to speak, quickly corrected that the VA has only 308 lawyers. Of course, the Defense Department dwarfs both numbers.

About half the crowd, estimated at more than 150, laughed when Tancredo first raised the subject of his proposal to threaten bombing Mecca, and the same people laughed again when he was caught in the lie about the VA's lawyers. They cheered at the end of Tancredo's remarks. I'm proud of the other half, who expressed their disapproval of the MAD concept. I'm very concerned that our culture has completely lost its conscience, and was especially saddened that the people who took so lightly the making of threats against millions of innocent, devout people, were largely senior citizens and veterans, people who otherwise would deserve enormous respect. (The other half, the ones whose consciences were still intact, were also largely seniors and veterans.)

As senior citizens, most of those attending the meeting remember the real cold war, when the United States and the Soviet Union had large numbers of nuclear weapons pointed at each other. What made the system work, in its insane way, was that both nations had elaborate systems in place to ensure that no individual, save the Head of State himself, could launch an attack, and even then with multi-level safeguards against accidents or rash actions. The very rational leaders on both sides fully understood the simple equation: push button = everyone dies, and believed that would be a bad thing.

Terrorism is different. Suicide bombers understand the same equation, but think it's a great thing. There are no safeguards and no hesitation. Terrorists don't read the papers, aren't rational, and couldn't care less if Mecca is blown up. They are not true Muslims. So Tancredo's threats have nothing to do with protecting America from terrorism, but are great for Al Qaeda recruitment and fund-raising. Somewhere in a cave in Afghanistan, Osama Bin Laden (remember him?) is thanking his perverted concept of Allah for Tancredo's idiocy.