Good For the World, Bad For the Right

They say when you take office, the "firsts" you pick need to be well-chosen because they carry a lot of weight. Here's one that will freak out a few of my blogger pals: Obama has given his first formal interview as President with Hisham Melhem of al Arabiya television.

Among the more interesting pull quotes:

Now, my job is to communicate the fact that the United States has a stake in the well-being of the Muslim world...even as we are decisive in going after terrorist organizations that would kill innocent civilians, that we're going to do so on our terms, and we're going to do so respecting the rule of law that I think makes America great. ... I cannot respect terrorist organizations that would kill innocent civilians and we will hunt them down. But to the broader Muslim world what we are going to be offering is a hand of friendship.

This is going to anger a lot of people on the right, if Malkin or Limbaugh get their hands on it. It amounts to "nuance", this distinguishing of Muslim Terrorists from Muslims. Most Muslims have no interest in killing Americans. But if you insist that all Muslims are terrorists who must be killed, then what incentive do they have to behave differently? And yeah, I've heard that viewpoint expressed more than once, though if you try to pin 'em down they'll say only the majority of muslims are terrorists. If you think this, you are mistaken.

Look, if you imprisoned a few hundred Americans without trial, you could expect a little retaliation from America. If Iran posted soldiers around Boston, local Bostonians would try to remove them. These are not unreasonable responses.

The hand of friendship is going to make us a hell of a lot safer, if it's accepted at this late date, than all the bombs and rhetoric we can throw out there.

(h/t THINK PROGRESS)