The Times say terrorism, not America, is the threat.

Folks,

That's the London Times which headed its editorial:

The wrong target

Terrorism, not America, is a real and present threat to our freedoms

Sorry if my post title led you to wonder even for an instant whether the New York Times expressed such sentiments.

Of course, it didn't.

The London Times' editorial begins :

Al-Haditha, a town on the Euphrates northwest of Baghdad, is still a place where fighters blend into the populace and literally use civilians as cover. Coalition forces may shoot only when threatened, ground rules that call for exemplary discipline and courage in conditions where their observance increases the risk of injury or death.

That should be acknowledged in the context of what appears to have been an appalling collapse of US military discipline in al-Haditha, where 24 Iraqi civilians were allegedly murdered by a company of US Marines after a member of their patrol was killed and two were injured by a roadside bomb.

America’s determination to demonstrate zero tolerance of such crimes should also be acknowledged; they in no way reflect US policy, or typify the conduct of American forces. Al-Haditha must not be made the subplot of a spurious morality play whose demon king is not terrorism, but the use and alleged abuse of US power. (bold added)

Whether you're politically left, center or right, you'd never expect to read anything like what you've just read in a NY Times editorial, would you?

There's no Bush-bashing, no "Rumsfeld is responsible," nothing about "our out of control military," and certainly no cries of "America's shame."

In fact, the London Times editorial is downright admiring of America, isn't it?

Its editorial continues :

America-bashing is in fashion as it has not been since Ronald Reagan accurately described the Soviet Union as an “evil empire”. Anti-Americanism is not confined to the usual radical chic suspects of the Left; in Britain, it infects the High Tory Establishment, “good Europeans” and little Englanders alike. So why are we all anti-Americans now? [...]

The Times overstates it when it asks: "So why are we all anti-Americans now?"

Not all British people are anti-American. In fact, a lot of those I meet in the UK when I visit there about twice a year are outright pro-American. They think Britain’s future is tied closely to America's.

Now, for sure, that's not the way most UK journalists and Church of England deans to say nothing of almost all formally educated academic anti-Semites think.

And such people and others like them may well constitute a majority in the UK.

But it's worth remembering there are many people in the UK who don't bash America and, in fact, admire it.

It will be such people there and elsewhere who will help win the fight for civilization.

The rest of the London Times editorial is here.

If you read it, I'd love to know what you think.