Why are they so stupid?

You know it never ceases to amaze me how seemingly intelligent people can be so stupid when they allow their ideals to cloud their judgement.

Today's candidate is Corelli Barnett - an acclaimed and noted author who, one would imagine, must be a reasonably intelligent geezer when he's not thinking about politics, but in today's Mail, Barnett has produced one of the most cringingly awful essays that it's been my displeasure to read.

I won't bother fisking it - read it if you want - but the basic thrust of his message is that the real problem with militant Islam and the attendant terrorism that goes with it is due to the Christianity of Bush. Sure, he acknowledges that Muslims can be a bit sensitive about their religion, but he seems to think that if we just stopped being Christian everything would be OK!

What an arsehole! For an author who has something of an historian bent to him you'd think Barnett would realise that the rest of the world has been at war with Islam ever since Mo realised that being all peace and love was getting him nowhere except broke and that he'd be a lot more successful spreading the "word of god" through war, fear and murder. A doctrine which his followers have continued for the last 1300 years or so.

Even if he didn't realise that then he must know that militant Islam has been active for the last few centuries - the rise of the Ottoman Empire, Barbary pirates? Or he must ave been aware that the current phase of Islamic offensives began in 1979 when Iran stormed sovereign US territory and has continued fighting proxy wars against the US ever since.

Of course, Barnett is an historian as well as an author - so he is well aware of all of this. He just chooses to pretend it didn't happen which reveal the extent of his stupidity as far as his liberal views are concerned.

As long as there are people like Barnett around to make apologies for them then militant Islam will believe it can win. When people like Barnett wake up to the reality - which seems unlikely given this essay, then we will know we have won.

How do you think it's going so far?