From a reader:

It’s absurd to say that something is a “recruiting tool” or “propaganda victory” and therefore should not be done. In a war, virtually any action taken by one side can be used as a recruiting tool for the other. Germans used the Allied bombardment of French cities during the Normandy invasion as a propaganda weapon. Does that mean the Allies should have foregone such bombardment? Of course not. You weigh the value of the action to you vs. the value of the propaganda to the other side, and make your choice. In current times, among the things we’ve done that have been “recruiting tools” for the enemy are maintaining a friendship with Israel and having a society in which women have equal rights. Should we abandon those along with Gitmo? That’s the logic of the liberals’ argument — which is to say, the illogic of it.

This reminded me of something I wrote in a review of Dinesh D’Souza’s book, The Enemy at Home. Dinesh spends vast amount time trying to demonstrate that how we live our lives pisses off Muslims and therefore we — or at least American conservatives — should find common cause with moderate Muslims and change our behavior at the same time. Anyway, it’s a richer (and more vexing) argument than that. But here’s the passage from my review:

But here’s my primary objection: I don’t care. There’s something about The Enemy at Home that gets the Irish up, even in a guy named Goldberg. I can criticize and complain about my brother all I like, but if my brother bothers somebody outside the family, well, that’s just too bad. Similarly, Ted Kennedy may or may not be a Caligulan carbuncle, but if the jihadists want to behead him for it, they’ll have to get through me first. In short, if our debauchery fuels Islamic terrorists to kill us, the blame for that still resides entirely with the terrorists. One can wholeheartedly agree that some Americans make poor use of their freedom, and that certain behavior shouldn’t be promoted, but that’s our problem. And if it makes it harder for us to make our case to the Muslim world, then harder it must be.
In the end, President Bush was right. They do hate our freedom. They hate other stuff too, to be sure. But quite a bit of what offends the jihadis flows from the fact that we are free. Indeed, even our support of Israel — which as D’Souza notes baffles many in the Middle East — is in the end the result of our freedom. Free countries support free countries. Or at least they are supposed to. “We understand your interests,” a Muslim lawyer who is baffled by our support for Israel, allegedly in defiance of our national interest, tells D’Souza. “We don’t understand your ideals.” Just so.