I understand the extreme reaction to last night’s events in Paris, believe me. Lots of people instinctively want to strike back against the people and ideologies responsible for the terror, and I agree with them. But when you completely demonize a couple billion people? That I cannot co-sign, and I’m about to tell you why. I fully realize that many of you are more hardline on all this than me, and that’s fine. It’s my blog, though, and so I wanted to come and explain things from my perspective.

I’ve known many Muslims throughout my life. My dear friend comes from that background, even though she is no longer practicing. I can tell you all that I’ve never met a kinder and more introspective person during my time on the planet. You’ve heard her talk yourselves; would you consider someone like her an enemy of the state? I saw many people on Twitter saying exactly that last night. If they had their way, every single Muslim would be thrown out of the West. Do you think they would make a distinction about her no longer practicing? What about her family, who are all law-abiding and peaceful, but still practice Islam? These are the questions that go through my mind when I see bloodthirsty tweets and “deport them all” kinds of messages.

Do not misunderstand me here. I’m not in favor of massive, unfettered immigration. But Nora and her family didn’t come to the United Kingdom in that manner. My friends from college didn’t come to the United States in that manner. I realize that letting followers of Islam into the West is going to cause some issues, undoubtedly. You simply can’t tell who is an extremist and who isn’t sometimes. This is the price we pay for being the beacon of the world, though. If we close up our countries and turn into complete monsters, then we are no longer upholding the ideals of our civilization.

Does this mean that Islam should be exempt from criticism? No. I have many problems with the religion, as I do with all religions. I see the subjugation of women and it bothers me deeply. Master Milo talked about gays being put to death in many Muslim countries for their sexuality in his column today, and he’s completely right to call that out. The sponsors of the terror and the people who help in any way must also be brought to justice. I don’t know that large scale military campaigns are the answer, though. In fact, I’m almost certain that they are not. ISIS is doing some terrible things, and I can understand a limited coalition to take them out. But going any further is not something I support. Why? Because it just causes more terror.

Bill Maher talked about it on his show last night

“I’m going to ask you this question that people asked after 9/11, because I don’t think we still know the answer: Why do they hate us?”

 The panel then fell silent—before panelist Dylan Ratigan brought up the U.S. funding Saudi Arabia as one reason that Islamic terrorists are upset with America.

“That’s not what terrorists say,” said Maher. When you capture one, or when they leave a note, you know what they say? Because you’re in Muslim lands. I have a crazy idea: Why don’t we get out of Muslim lands?”

To me, this is something that needs to be examined. We can’t get involved in every single military conflict they have going over there. They don’t want us and we don’t need to waste the treasure in both blood and money. Let them sort their own shit and we can help from afar in whatever ways we can…and that doesn’t mean drone strikes and F-22’s. Speaking of those drone strikes, I’m not saying we should take that tool out of our repertoire completely. There are places for it, like with Jihadi John the other day. But over-reliance on this is the cause of some of the resentment. We shouldn’t apologize for defending ourselves, but recklessness is a net negative.

Anyway, these are just a few of my thoughts on the matter. As many of you know, I originally come from a liberal background, even thought the SJWs and corrupt pols have driven me into independence. You can feel free to disregard my post as just the rantings of another deluded appeaser because of all that. But if we change so much that we no longer resemble the old West, then what have we really won? In my opinion, nothing. The death of so many innocent people yesterday was tragic, and I weep for every single one of them. But the death of Western civilization would be tragedy on a much larger scale.