MISPLACED OUTRAGE

I'M NEITHER AN INTELLECTUAL NOR A WRITER FACILE WITH FANCY LANGUAGE. I KNOW NOT WHAT NEWT GINGRICH'S "METRIC-BASED PERFORMANCE OR ENTREPRENEURIAL IMPLEMENTATION" ENTAIL. I WRITE NOT "WINDY BROMIDES" CONTAINED IN LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. I MERELY READ ABOUT THE "CIRCUS OF PIETIES AND OUTRAGE" OVER A SPEECH BY POPE BENEDICT VI BY AN ERUDITE COLUMNIST, TUNKU VARADARAJAN (WHOSE NAME I CAN'T EVEN PRONOUNCE). BUT I CAN SPOT MISPLACED OUTRAGE. THE POPE SPOKE TRUTH TO POWER CALLING EXTREMIST, RELIGIOUS IDEOLOGY AND ALLAH INSPIRED TERRORISM, IMMORAL AND DANGEROUS. ALSO, ORIANA FALLACI, AN OUTSPOKEN CRITIC OF EUROPE'S APPEASEMENT OF RADICAL ISLAM, PENNED THE WISE OBSERVATION THAT WHEN A NATION COMPROMISES ITS PRINCIPLES AND ABANDONS ITS VALUES, ITS CULTURE AND CIVILIZATION DIE. WHAT FOOL - OTHER THAN THE ONE ON WHOSE FOOT THE SHOE FITS - WOULD BE OUTRAGED BY THE EXPRESSION OF THESE TRUTHS BY POPE BENEDICT OR ORIANA.? YET WHENEVER THE TRUTH IS SPOKEN, AN APOLOGY TO THE MUSLIMS MUST NOT BE FAR BEHIND.

AN OUTRAGE IS THE PATTERN OF SABOTAGE BY PRISONERS AT GUANTANAMO BAY WHICH ENDANGERS THE LIVES OF OUR SOLDIERS AND COSTS AMERICAN TAXPAYERS ONE MILLION DOLLARS FOR REPAIRS TO ONE DETAINEE CAMP.

GEORGE WEIGEL, A CHRISTIAN WRITER AND THINKER, PREFERS THE PHRASE MORAL TRUTHS TO MORAL VALUES WHEN REFERRING TO WHAT AMERICA STANDS FOR IN THE WAR AGAINST THE ENEMY, RADICAL JIHADISM. HE CLAIMS THAT WHAT WE HOLD DEAR IN OUR CULTURE AND CIVILIZATION ARE: " THE INVIOLABILITY OF INNOCENT HUMAN LIVES, THE SANCTUARY OF RELIGIOUS CONSCIENCE, THE DIGNITY OF THE HUMAN PERSON AS THE BEARER OF INALIENABLE RIGHTS AND THE MORAL SUPERIORITY OF CONSENT OVER COERCION AS A POLITICAL METHOD." NEGATE EACH OF THESE MORAL TRUTHS AND YOU HAVE THE PRINCIPLES ON WHICH RADICAL ISLAM OPERATES: DESTRUCTION OF INNOCENTS, DICTATORSHIP OF CONSCIENCE, ELIMINATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND FORCED CONSENTS. THE GRIMNESS OF THIS FOUR-FOLD REALITY SHOULD OUTRAGE EACH AND EVERY RIGHTEOUS SOUL.