Lefties: What's the Big Deal About Blowing Up a Plane Full of People?

Prof. Jacobson, following up on his earlier post, brings us this gem from Matthew Yglesias:

Obviously, people shouldn’t be lighting anything on fire inside airplanes. That said, all the big Christmas airline incident really shows to me is how little punch our dread terrorist adversaries really pack. Once again, this seems like a pretty unserious plot. And even if you did manage to blow up an airplane in mid-air, that would be both a very serious crime and a great tragedy, but hardly a first-order national security threat....

Ultimately, it does no favors to anyone to blow this sort of thing out of proportion. The United States could not, of course, be “devastated” by anything resembling this scheme. We ought to be clear on that fact. We want to send the message around the world that this sort of vile attempt to slaughter innocent people is not, at the end of the day, anything resembling a serious challenge to American power. It’s attempted murder, it’s wrong, we should try to stop it, but it’s really not much more than that.

Then there is this post from Donald Douglas at American Power:

But there's something more significant to consider with regards to how the left perceives this terror plot. I'm reading Spencer Ackerman's post on this, "al-Qaeda’s Desperate Bid For Relevance, The Failed Plane Attack & Afghanistan." Despite his purported national security "credentials," Spencer Ackerman's woefully unserious about war and terrorism. Recall that this is the guy who called for President George W. Bush's death at the Hague, and for that reason alone his rants will garner the attention of leftist foreign policy vultures. A good example of this childishness is Ackerman's tweet from yesterday, seen here:

What is it going to take for the Left to take the threat that terrorists pose to this country serious? Let people gather for a peaceful Tea Party protest and the Lefties are screaming their fool heads off about "radicals" but let a real radical attempt to blow up a plane with 300 people on it and all you get from the Left is "eh, no biggie."

Of course, if they took the threat seriously then they would also recognize the need for action. Let's face it, the men of the Left aren't exactly known as real men of action. No, for this crowd, the only action they are interested in consists of the bong and sushi fete after the gallery opening.

The "pee pee pants" crowd ignores and/or downplays the dangers that radical Islam poses to all free people in part because their worldview doesn't allow for 'good vs. evil' or 'right vs. wrong'. Again, recognizing evil or wrongdoing requires action, and that is a no go.

Let them going quietly back to their fetes. Serious issues should be dealt with by serious people.