The American Spectator

America is a remarkably cosmopolitan, tolerant country where people allow idiot foreigners to come into their homes and set up television cameras because they are open to new things and don’t feel threatened by them. I personally wouldn’t want it any other way. I disagree completely with Dennis Prager and those conservatives who are trying to prevent Minnesota Democrat Keith Ellison from swearing in on the Koran. I think people should be allowed to practice any religious faith they want.

But it is very unrealistic to expect the rest of the world to act the same way. It won’t. And it isn’t going to for a long, long time.

I THINK OUR BEST STRATEGY right now is to let Iraq sink or swim — but not necessarily to expect the worst. There is something oddly compelling about Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s “letter to the American people.” Why not allow him to join the discussion? After all, Iran will be living cheek-by-jowl with Iraq much longer than we will. Whatever influence the Iranian Shi’ia have in Iraq, it will be offset by Sunni intervention from Saudi Arabia, Syria, Egypt and so on. They can do a much better job of calming the civil war than we ever will. The Sunnis and Shi’ia have been killing each other for centuries. If we can put them under the glare of world opinion, they may learn to get along better — which would make the whole Muslim world less lethally violent.

Of course the lurking danger here is that once all Muslims, Sunni and Shi’ia, get together, they will try to destroy Israel. That isn’t going to happen either. We can offer a conventional and nuclear umbrella. But we don’t have to invade the Middle East to maintain this protection. It’s like West Berlin — there’s an extreme vulnerability but we just let them know that any incursion triggers a much wider and more catastrophic war.

America is a democratic exception in a tribal world, a place where ethnic loyalties are largely forgotten, where people are open and tolerant, and where we use this cooperation to create a rich and prosperous society. That’s why most people in the world would like to live here. But let’s lead by example, rather than trying to impose our tolerance on everyone else.