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July 27, 2005
Nuking Mecca?
Originally a plug for yesterday's show, but it seems to have become a debate thread about nuking Mecca or Medina. (The debate begins about halfway through the comments.)
I'm not endorsing this, I'm just advertising the fact that this thread has become a debate on the subject.
My two cents: I really wouldn't want to see the US become a terrorist power, attacking civilian targets to terrorize a billion people. I would say, though, that our nation wasn't thrilled about the idea of nuking Russian cities, either, and yet that was a possible response to an attack on our cities.
If the worse should happen, and a terrorist power or state obtain a nuclear weapon and threaten to use it on (or actually detonate it in) a US city, we're going to have to threaten something extreme.
But nuking Mecca or Media seems awfully counterproductive (obviously it's immoral). Not only does doing that play into the terrorists' hands -- now they've got 1 billion recruits ready for total war -- but you can't threaten to destroy what you've already destroyed.
It's a vile question without any good answers... if elements of the Islamic war engage in a genocidal nuclear war against US, what the hell do we do? Engage in a genocidal nuclear war against their innocents, too? Or just learn to live with a few less cities than we had grown accustomed to?
Now with 50% more Star Trek content!
Also, Jonah will be forced to answer whether Cosmo the Wonder Dog is now, or has ever been, a member of the Federalist Society.
As usual, the call-in line is 866-884-TALK.
Update: Questions for Jonah. I'm sure a lot of you guys are big fans, so if you want to suggest a question, please do, and write them in the comments. I can't guarantee how many questions I'll get to (I've got my own list), but I will try to ask a couple.
And Allah, stop asking silly questions. This is a classy intellectual sort of show, the successor to Firing Line, except even smarter.