Don’t Apologize, Governor Romney!

Andrew C. McCarthy wrote in National Review Online Monitoring radical mosques is exactly what we should be doing. Radical mosques are the spark lighting the fuse that can kill Americans. That has killed Americans. That will kill more if we let it.

Absolutely.

Such killing sprees, moreover, are plotted by young, male, Muslim militants who often enter to the United States on student and other visas from places known to sponsor or export terrorism. None of this is news. But it is cloaked in taboo. Thus, controversy was stoked last week when Mitt Romney, the Massachusetts governor and potential Republican 2008 presidential hopeful, did something that you should never do in this country. Not, at least, if you want to escape the caterwauling of civil liberties extremists and a cacophony of activist Muslim organizations whose knee-jerk approach to "opposing" terror is indignant spewing at every effort made to prevent it.

Ignore them.

He told the truth. Gov. Romney suggested that in the ongoing war, we ought to be investigating mosques that preach Islamic militancy and the young men who come to this country from rogue precincts of the Islamic world. For giving voice to such a notion, Romney's comeuppance is to have the usual suspects screaming for an apology. Instead, we should be giving him a medal. Monitoring radical mosques is exactly what we ought to be doing if we want to avoid domestic terror attacks on the United States. It should be the top priority. And not due to conjecture. We know for certain, and we have known for many years, that modern terrorists are inspired by the Islamic extremism they are routinely fed in mosques — whether here, or in Europe. Not all mosques, but many of them.

And the ones that are not involved should appreciate having us know who were the good ones and who were the bad ones.

.... The current media narrative holds that the president's record-low approval ratings indicate flagging public support for the war. Nonsense. A goodly chunk of the disapproval contingent is comprised of Bush supporters increasingly worried that the urgent priority of crushing militant Islam has been eclipsed by lesser goals. If Gov. Romney really does have presidential ambitions, he hasn't just done the right thing. He's done the smart thing.