Resistance is Futile

The magnanimous James Taranto at the Wall Street Journal online editorial page allows that:

The world has some two billion Muslims, the vast majority of whom are not radicals; and a religious crusade to convert them to Christianity (or Judaism, or atheism) simply is not an option.

Interesting choice of words -- it's not that the idea is wrong or wouldn't solve the problem, it's just that it's not feasible. But make no mistake, it's the entire religion that's the problem:

The only way to defeat the radical Islamists is to establish an accommodation between Islam and democracy--to assimilate the Islamic world into the modern world.

One might have thought that the way to defeat radical Islamists is to, like, defeat them, but we clearly aren't nuanced enough about it.

UPDATE: Joyous news, as today's OpinionJournal corrects the above to note that there are 700 million less Muslims to assimilate than originally stated:

Apparently the estimate of two billion Muslims world-wide we cited ... is on the high side. Most estimates seem to be in the range of 1.2 billion to 1.3 billion. Still, our point stands: That's a lot of Muslims, and only a reconciliation between Islam and democracy can produce victory against Islamist terrorists.

And remember, all this rhetorical effort by them is being expended to justify an interpretation of Dubya's inauguration speech that the White House has already disowned.