“Never appease evil”

The Satan's Femily [sic] -- artist unidentifiedLittle Green Footballs has made available the audio of a beautiful speech Ayaan Hirsi made to the American Jewish Committee when accepting their award for moral courage. Like the lady herself, it was brave and graceful, and I urge you to listen to it. I was especially struck by her point at the end: "Never appease evil." It struck me because of the response to my American Thinker article expressing optimism about certain popular movies and literature. In it, I stated my belief that the Harry Potter books and movies, the Lord of the Ring trilogy, and the Narnia books teach our children precisely the lesson Ms. Hirsi stated: there is evil out there, and the only option is to fight it.

At my blog, in response to that article, I've had a series of polite, thoughtful and articulate comments arguing, as I understand it, that my view is just too black and white. That there's no such thing as evil. That everything can be talked out. That one can always negotiate. That our enemies are people too. All of this may be true in ordinary wars for resources or land or power or dynastic ambitions. However, I do not think this is ever true when the wars revolve around competing ideological beliefs, if one of those beliefs fundamentally respects all humanity, while the other one seeks to control, abuse and destroy most segments of humanity. In those circumstances, the nation that respects humanity must play against type and become tough and aggressive.  This is so because, when all is said and done, you must never appease evil.

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