Yuval,

Thank you for your interesting take and kind reaction. I guess the question of moderation and justice is really several-fold in light of current issues. As you know the history of the Jaffa/Goldwater quote, it was in part a response to the so called moderates who condemned Goldwater as too extreme within the GOP. Extremism was and is, itself, not always a bad thing or “vice.” As Jaffa would point out later (actually, in the pages of National Review):

Martin Luther King Jr., in his 1963 “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” wrote of how disappointed he had been that his fellow clergymen saw his “nonviolent efforts as those of an extremist.” After reflection, however, he decided that this was not a term of reproach but a badge of honor. “Was not Jesus an extremist for love?” King asked. “Was not Amos an extremist for justice? … Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian Gospel? … Was not Martin Luther an extremist? … and John Bunyan? … and Abraham Lincoln: ‘This nation cannot survive half slave and half free.’ And Thomas Jefferson: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal …’ So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be.”

I thought, then, the quote here about moderation in the pursuit of justice apt given a) the lame response of the Obama campaign to the Russian-Georgian war (can anyone tell me what they actually prescribe right now?) and b) the condemnation of McCain for being too “aggressive” and “belligerent” in his statements (“extreme” if you will).

So when we look to injustice today, i.e., the real aggression in the world (namely, Russia’s, China’s, or Sudan’s or other Islamists’), we should recall that moderation on our and the West’s part (when we have been moderate in the face of evil) has enabled all of it at worst and dissuaded none of it at best. I do not, it should be noted, think every wrong has the same right. But I do believe what we did in Iraq and Afghanistan was not moderate. I also think Ronald Reagan’s actions and language during the Cold War were not moderate. Indeed, I think they were just and virtuous. I think McCain understands this, I think Obama — sadly and dangerously — does not. And I worry about this as we move forward to other fronts crying out for justice.