"I come out of the libertarian wing of the Reagan revolution," Tony Blankley said at the Tuesday night dinner banquet at the Young America's Foundation national conference. "I'm in favor of maximizing freedom and minimizing government."
Yet since the September 11 attacks, Mr. Blankley told hundreds of college students attending the weeklong conference, the threat of terrorism has caused him to weigh the importance of civil liberties versus the need for "minimal precautions to protect ourselves" from another attack.
"It does you no good to be dead and theoretically free," said Mr. Blankley, who served in the Reagan White House and as Newt Gingrich's press secretary before becoming editorial page editor of The Washington Times.
Speaking on the themes he addressed in his 2005 book, "The West's Last Chance," Mr. Blankley said that technology has helped spread the violent extremist message of radical Islam.
"The Internet has been the purveyor of these ideas across the globe," he said, comparing the way the Internet has spread radical Islam's message to the way in which Guttenberg's development of the printing press helped spread Protestant Christianity.
Opponents of the war in Iraq, Mr. Blankley said, are "locked into 'we shouldn't have gone there. We need to get out.' ... They're looking back instead of looking forward."
YAF's national conference continues through Friday at George Washington University. Wednesday night's dinner speaker will be radio talk-show host Michael Reagan. Thursday morning, Mr. Gingrich will speak at the conference.
-- Robert Stacy McCain, assistant national editor, The Washington Times
Comments (3)
The Internet may very well be a "purveyor of these ideas across the globe" as Mr. Blankley states. It is also the purveyor of messages of freedom and liberty and shows the world what the citizens of this country are capable of creating when there are no restrictions on the free exchange of ideas. The Internet itself was created to allow ideas to be widely exchanged faster than any previous media. No restriction should ever be placed on the expression and exchange of ideas.
The terrorists may be using the Internet to recruit other members and to transmit messages of hate worldwide, but the Internet is merely a tool which the terrorists and their supporters are exploiting. Why should anyone restrict access to a tool simply because someone is using it in a way that is harmful to others? Would Mr. Blankley complain about hardware stores, for example, simply because some one bought a hammer and used it to kill someone or destroy their private property?
Unrestricted access to the Internet is a threat to those countries that limit its citizens to the free expression and exchange of ideas. This is why China, for example, blocks websites it deems as subversive to that government. The free expression and exchange of ideas does not lead to oppression and tyranny, it leads freedom and liberty.
Posted by Ray | August 1, 2007 10:43 AM
I believe liberty, freedom, and democracy are stronger influences across the Internet than the messages that the extremists are dishing out. The Internet doesn't bomb innocent people in the street, their homes, or on school buses. And, as much as technology has become a tool for the terrorists, it has also become a powerful tool for the people fighting them as well. We need to spend more of our time looking at who is sending the messages and what countries/groups are helping them do it. This is a people problem. It's about ideology not technology.
Posted by Gary | August 1, 2007 2:24 PM
Right now, Islamists have the capability to fund full time propagandists, who capitalize on the internets open spaces.
They are undertaking a cyberjihad against any opposing views on any forum they can use. The tactic is to swarm, and where users can use ratings/flags to affect the popularity of content, these Islamists concentrate their efforts at shutting down the sharpest criticism.
YouTube is a laboratory for this sort of thing. Right now the Islamist voices are outnumbering their competition. They set up 'private' groups to flag anti-terror users, and game YouTubes automated account suspension system.
So, it's nice to have faith in free speech, but lets not allow the ghost of Josef Goebbels to rise again on our own media.
USA, all the way!
Posted by Michael Weaver | August 1, 2007 4:29 PM