Slate staff members discuss the current crisis.

My officemate Tim Noah {d.b.a. "Chatterbox") has been diligently cataloging "stupid" and "gasp-inducing statements" about Sept. 11 in "Retract This, Please." Tim starts his latest installment with a quote from Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi:

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"We must be aware of the superiority of our civilization, a system that has guaranteed well-being, respect for human rights and--in contrast with Islamic countries--respect for religious and political rights. ... [T]he West will continue to conquer peoples, like it conquered communism."

Now you might argue that Berlusconi's timing was off. This is a moment when geopolitics seems to require us to suck up to the bully dictatorships and thug monarchies of the Islamic world. But is what he says is either "stupid" or "gasp-inducing"? Certainly not. It is wonderfully correct. (This is a classic example of a "gaffe," as defined by our boss Michael Kinsley: "when a politician speaks the truth.")

I believe in the superiority of Western democracies. Don't you? Shouldn't we admire "a system that has guaranteed well-being, respect for human rights, and...respect for religious and political rights." Americans and western Europeans cherish these rights. They are what make our nations so strong. And Berlusconi is certainly right about Islamic countries: There isn't a single one that guards political, human, and religious rights as they are guarded in Europe and the U.S., and they are the weaker for it.

For years, Americans have preached these fundamental values around the world, and condemned the governments of the Muslim world for rejecting them. So while it's fine from a practical point of view to insist that we turn a blind eye to the awful governments of Saudi Arabia or Pakistan, it's morally wrong to pretend that we admire that awfulness.

Even that final sentence, with the unfortunate phrase "conquer peoples," is fundamentally right. The aim of the United States, I thought, was to spread democracy throughout the world, to share these rights that we love with billions who lack them. We celebrated when communist Europe collapsed not just because our enemy was vanquished , but because millions of people were given a delicious chance at freedom. Democracy everywhere, human, religious, and political rights everywhere! This is what we are fighting for. We must remember it now, not hide from it.

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