Barrel Strength

Would restricting free speech lead to increased safety, as some would argue either blatantly or implicitly? After the riots and threats of terror that emerged after the publication of the Danish cartoons, some of the chattering and governing classes have concluded that silence is a price worth paying for the “social peace”. They are content to believe that the causality flows in only one direction.

And dovetailing with this presumption is the shibboleth that Islamist terrorism is driven by grievances. Not so, says Melvin Lee, a US naval captain who serves as special operations officer for the commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe, and commander, U.S. 6^th Fleet. Capt. Lee takes a long, hard and well-researched look at the origins of today’s jihadi violence.

 h/t to Michael Rubin, National Review Online