Terror Incognita

"It's not so simple." - this is the rallying cry of goopy gray liberals against conservatives with all of their black-and-white moralism. Whether it be the propagation of democracy in the Middle East or pat answers to social pathology such as (cue rimshot) abstinence - the response is slightly disdainful: "It's not so simple."

For the record I agree with this, to some extent. The answers that conservatives seek are often far too cut-and-dried. There's nothing wrong with a hankering for Cleaver-era simplicity, except when it comes at the cost of denial - when everyone ignores the fact that June needs pills and vodka to get moving every morning.

But liberals have a troublesome knack for avoiding information that disrupts their neat ideologies too. Consider the prevailing wisdom that all recent terror attacks are the result of the war in Iraq - as if the victims deserved it, however indirectly. How do you explain that to Algeria, a non-participating country who recently had two diplomats kidnapped? How do you explain it to the families of Sharm El-Sheik?