Regarding the cartoon wars, Amir Teheri wrote (Bug Me Not) (via the Bull Moose):
‘A BLESSING from God”: So have Iran’s leaders, starting with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, described the controversy over the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed.
A closer look at the row, however, shows that the whole rigmarole was launched by Sunni-Salafi groups in Europe and Asia, with Ahmadinejad and his Syrian vassal, President Bashar al-Assad, belatedly playing catch-up. God had nothing to do with it.
***In Cairo, the Muslim Brotherhood told the Danish group that this was not the time to kick a fuss over the cartoons. The brotherhood was busy plotting its election strategy and pretending to be a “moderate” political party. The last thing it wanted was to be branded as a rabid anti-West force. The brotherhood leaders suggested that the matter be put on ice until January.
The Danish militants also received a negative reply from Hamas, the Palestinian radical movement. Hamas was busy trying to win a general election and needed to reassure at least part of the Palestinian middle classes. The Hamas advice was: Wait until after we have won.
***For Denmark is set to assume the rotating presidency of the U.N. Security Council — at the very time that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is expected to refer Iran to the Security Council and demand sanctions. What better, for Tehran’s purposes, than to portray Denmark as “an enemy of Islam” and mobilize Muslim sympathy against the Security Council?
To regain the initiative from the Sunni-Salafi groups, Ahmadinejad quickly ordered a severing of commercial ties with Denmark, thus portraying the Islamic Republic as the Muslim world’s leader in the anti-Danish campaign.
Syria was next to jump on the bandwagon, again for mercenary reasons. The United Nations wants Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and five of his relatives and aides, including his younger brother, for questioning in the murder of Lebanon’s former premier, Rafiq al-Hariri. (Assad has tried to negotiate immunity for himself and his brother in exchange for handing over the others — but the U.N. wouldn’t play.) As with Iran’s nuclear program, the Syrian dossier will reach the Security Council under Danish presidency. To portray Denmark as “an enemy of the Prophet” would not be such a bad thing when the council, as expected, points the finger at Assad and his regime as responsible for a series of political murders, including that of Hariri.
The Danish-cartoons cow will also be milked in another way: Tehran and Damascus have launched a diplomatic campaign to put the issue of “protecting religions against blasphemy” on the Security Council agenda. If that were to happen, issues such as Iran’s quest for the atomic bomb and Syria’s murder machine in Lebanon might be pushed aside, at least as far as world public opinion is concerned.
Pretty plausible. It appears the Bush administration thinks so, too:
The Bush administration yesterday condemned the violent response to European cartoons mocking Islam and accused Iran and Syria of exploiting the international controversy to incite unrest and protests in the Middle East.
“I have no doubt that Iran and Syria have gone out of their way to inflame sentiments and have used this for their own purposes,” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters yesterday. “The world ought to call them on it.”
A few hours earlier, at a White House ceremony with Jordan’s King Abdullah, President Bush rejected the violence but not the cartoons that incited bloody protests from Afghanistan to Denmark, where the drawings first appeared. “We reject violence as a way to express discontent with what may be printed in a free press,” Bush said.
Bush and Rice, making their first public remarks on the growing worldwide controversy, highlighted a shift in White House strategy to focusing on the killings and destruction during Muslim protests in several nations — in contrast to earlier statements that included criticism of the provocative drawings. Administration officials said Bush does not want a debate over free speech to diminish or deflect attention from the U.S. condemnation of the violence.
Meanwhile, ‘moderate’ Muslims protest in England to show that they can protest nonviolently:
A demonstration by thousands of UK mainstream Muslims protesting against controversial cartoons satirising the Prophet Muhammad is under way.
Organisers and police expect at least 10,000 people to gather in London’s Trafalgar Square on Saturday afternoon.
Apparently, they are wholly unaware they are still being played like a fiddle. Meanwhile, the first violinist of this sham symphony of ginned up outrage is sounding some old notes:
Iran’s president on Saturday rejected U.S. and European pressure to freeze the country’s nuclear program and hinted that Iran may withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
The remarks came in a speech to tens of thousands of Iranians massed in Tehran’s Azadi Square to mark the 27th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution that brought a Muslim theocracy to power.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also said that the true Holocaust was happening now in the Palestinian territories and Iraq. The Iranian leader has caused worldwide outrage by questioning the Jewish genocide and arguing Israel should be “wiped off the map.”
Don’t you just love the Middle East?
Paul Wartenberg
No.
Paddy O'Shea
Reactionary politicians using religious controversy to stir up the rabble as a way of putting forward their agenda?
Nothing new about that. How do you think Bush got to be president?
Slide
I kinda feel the same way about Cole, and his kind, being played by Bush and company. You know “mushroom clouds” “tons and tons of WMD” “fight them there so we don’t have to fight them here” “central war on terror” yadda yadda yadda.
I guess its always hard to see when you are being played. Anyone that does not NOW see how the Bush team was completely deceptive and dishonest in their sales job convincing Americans to sacrifice their sons and daughters for this blunder of a war is as oblivious to “being played” as are those protesting in the streets of the mideast. Same mindset at work.
Richard Bottoms
I thought, thanks to George Bush’s expert handling of Iraq we fixed all this mess. Surely we haven’t been outmanuvered by a bunch of, well Ann Coulter says it best:
They’re just not that smart, we have God on our side, and the whole thing will be a cakewalk. We certainly don’t need any French speaking folks with an understanding of diplomacy of all things to being running the show. If need be we’ll just take all 1 billion of them out.
But Special Forces may have to be just a little bit bigger.
Davebo
How so? Because their peaceful protest was delayed from the actual publication?
Or are moderate muslims all “on the plantation” like African Americans?
Hey, here’s an idea! How about encouraging those muslims who protest peacefully rather than insunuating they’re a bunch of idiots and then wondering why none of them like you?
The Other Steve
This plotting and planning sounds a lot like Swiftboat Veterans for Slurs.
Do you think Karl Rove is also advising the Muslim Brotherhood?
ppGaz
Ditto.
–/
The Mulsim who sent the cartoons to his brethren in the Middle East spoke to an interviewer with actual disdain about how the drawings reflected a tendency toward {shudder} “atheism.”
Chilling.
Stormy70
Muslims kill over cartoons, but the posters above barely pause in their bashing of Bush. Why should we trust your party with National Security again? So you can excuse the intimidation of free speech perpetuated by a radical minority, if only you can continue to bash Bush. Muslims have been angry for alot longer than Bush has been in office. Carry on. The marginalization is continuing apace.
The Disenfranchised Voter
Alright I’m convinced. Stomry is a spoof. Anyone who equates verbal legitimate criticism of the Bush Administration with killing over cartoons can’t be serious…
ppGaz
Uh, excuse me …. can you produce the post here, or anywhere, anytime … where I “excused the intimidation of free speech?”
moflicky
Wow, I don’t think I’ve seen more gratuitious changing of the subject than the first 10 or so comments on this thread.
Gosh, can’t be seen criticizing islam, so lets turn this into a bush bash. Avoid the real and important questions being raised, and make this another echo chamber.
nicely said Stormy.
cartoon riots? bush.
riots in france? chimpy again.
hamas, hezbollah, muslim brotherhood? american consertativism.
the iranian mullahs and a president who thinks he’s the 12th imam? cheney’s and rummy’s fingerprints all over that.
rape victims being sentenced to die, honor killings, threats and murder for being offended or dishonored? christian fundamentalists of course.
why, even osama himself was the bush family’s creation.
It must be wonderful to live in a world where all the problems can be pinpointed to a single source. it’s so so much more simple that way.
mycat
I think it is obvious that governments in the Middle East are milking this for all it’s worth. However we need to remember that the Danish paperr that printed the cartoons did it for the purpose of making European Muslims feel unwelcome. The bigotry was deliberate and malicious, published for the purpose of hurting feelinngs and creating alienation. The very same Danish paper had previoulsy refused to publish cartoons that demeaned Christianity. This situation needs to be viewed from the standpoint of our longterm goals. Do we want to alienate and demonized Muslims so we can justify perpetual war? Do we want to live in peaceful mutual respect?
Paddy O'Shea
Stormy is just doing her duty. It is important for the right here in America to deny that there is any similarity between our domestic religious fundamentalism and the Middle East variety currently creating so much indignation.
It certainly isn’t an easy job for her. Kind of like trying to convince people the world is flat.
ppGaz
But it’s a lie.
ppGaz
But you’re giving here too much, or too little, credit, depending on how you look at things.
It’s not a matter of convincing. It’s a matter of saying “We can the world is flat, and get away with it, so nyah, nyah, nyah …” and getting a good laugh.
Stormy doesn’t think the world is flat. She just gets a kick out of saying it’s flat and watching others react.
Now Storm, behave yourself. Stop being naughty.
ppGaz
*we can say*
Paddy O'Shea
ppGaz: Can’t say I agree. I believe Stormy is convinced that what she is saying actually is the truth.
The move to extreme rightwing politics in America is hardly a phenomenon built on irony. A lot of these people actually believe this stuff.
moflicky
european muslims need no one but their own imams to make them feel unwelcome. they preach and teach non-assimulation. they teach that the laws and customs of their host countries are not to be obeyed if they conflict with sharia. They use the exact same free speech laws to preach hatred against the kafir, but want to impose speech restrictions on everyone else.
so? is that the fault of the danish government? is punishing all danes, in fact all europeans the proper response? this is nothing but appeasement of temper tantrums. you are in effect forgiving the riots because “we should have known better”.
they don’t want mutual respect. They’re not interested in living together in peace. They don’t have offer any concessions for their own hate speech, the respect they demand is only in one direction.
They preach the superiority of Islam, and the inferiority of the west. They teach not to befriend or even associate with the kafir, for that will bespoil the purity of islam.
How will western raised Muslim youth ever NOT be alienated, frustrated and radicalized when they’re taught they have nothing useful to learn from western civilization, that they are superior to those who would sign their paychecks. In that sort of environment, getting a job, working hard and rising up via the laws and customs of their host country is not considered success – the only way for a young muslim man to ‘succeed’ is by the power that is felt through radicalism.
no amount of ‘understanding’ why they riot, murder and burn will change that.
ppGaz
Indeed, but Stormy isn’t one of them. She’s just a very good kidder.
Pb
You know, I, for one, find it entirely unsurprising that the Bush administration took this opportunity to shovel the blame at Iran and Syria instead of, say, Saudi Arabia. They’ve been doing this for years–it fits their M.O. to a T.
Pooh
Is it now Godwin’s Law 2.0? If you compare Bush to anything you lose, no matter how apt the compariosn? Or is it comparing anything to miltiant islamicists? Stormy, please inform us of the rules of debate. We wouldn’t want 50-some percent of the country to be ‘marginalized’ (I don’t think that word means what you think it means) so help us become better citizens with your Gin and Juice.
Responsible discussion circa 2006: “What do you think of the President? Merely good, greatest ever, or simply messianic?”
Bob In Pacifica
One thing I would question is whether the Assads want to stir up things in their home country. I don’t doubt that the Muslim Brotherhood was in there mixing things up. A report on the BBC had two different eyewitnesses to the Damascus rioting, one saying that the government allowed it to get out of hand, another saying the Muslim Brotherhood’s supporters were the violent element in the crowd. The MB is banned in Syria, and neither observer had much more proof other than what each saw.
It doesn’t serve Syria’s interests to make itself a bigger target for BushCo. Iran would be an awful tough war, but if you’re spoiling for a fight after the screwup in Iraq, Syria would be a relatively easy country to knock over. Of course, the country has so many factions that a post-war Syria would make post-war Iraq look positively united. But it would confirm that the purpose of BushCo is not to spread democracy but to keep the Middle East weakened and divided, the better to be controlled by the Corporate World.
scs
I agree with the Bushies because I am starting to see a rather unholy alliance going on in the Middle East. Although many of you lefties felt that it was practically impossible for different Muslim groups to work together, such as secular Muslims and Al Qaeda, or Shias and Sunnis, it seems Irans finger prints are all over the Middle East. The largest and most violent demonstrations were in Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Iran. This is all Hezbollah, funded in large part by Iran. Hezbollah also has smaller groups in Europe as well. I do believe it is Iran’s game to get some PR to help it get nukes. I also still believe that there is good reason to believe that Iran tried to rig the elections for Palestine,Iran, and Iraq. All of them had “surprising” results were the fundies were far behind and somehow they just “happened” to win. I heard some fundie Iranian official in the media proclaim recently “Thank god our enemies are stupid”. And with the lack of suspicion with these election results, and about these demonstrations, I think he may have a point.
Slide
Stormy:
Do you excuse THIS intimidation?
.or THIS intimidation:
Of course I can go on and on about how this administration and their minions are always trying to intimidate free speech. But hypocrisy is not unknown to the Stormy’s of the world.
scs
Was there any threat to jail the artist, or fine the paper, or fire the editor? No? Then it’s called free speech Slide – even generals are allowed to have it in this country.
Pooh
scs,
Funny, no one has talked about
except for you. Try to argue against what we say, not what you wish we said.
scs
Try to argue reality. If the generals did not take any action agsint the paper or threaten the right of the paper to publish, and merely expressed their displeasure, that is called freedom of speech.
ppGaz
She has to post with the tiny child brain that she has, not with the larger adult brain
she wisheswe wish she had.ppGaz
Probably not. As another poster pointed out today, there is no “freedom of speech” in the military.
But more to the point, freedom of speech in this context is when I, as a civilian, complain that generals and admirals in the most powerful military on earth are under civilian control and should keep their opinions to themselves, and nobody is going to shut me up. THAT is freedom of speech. Keeping in mind, of course, that I agreed with the generals on the matter of the cartoon, but I don’t agree that it’s their place to criticize the cartoon. They are big strong men and then can bit their lips and hold it in. The civilians should do the talking. I am not interested in generals’ opinions of what is in bad taste. They are not paid to exercise taste.
Pooh
What are you contrasting this point against? Stormy brought up “intimidation”, not myself or pgGaz. Your individual words make sense, it’s the way you put them together that’s the issue. You can’t win an argument by cleverly redefining terms midstream.
ppGaz
Crap. Another perfectly good strategy, down the toilet.
Pb
scs,
Ah yes, that would explain why I’ve seen people waving and burning all sorts of flags–but none for Hezbollah.
skip
When I saw the “Real Goals” header I thought we’d finally be mentioning Flemming Rose, the friend of neocon Daniel Pipes , who cooked up the cartoon contest in the first place.
Free Speech was just a mask for Rose’s real agenda, which was to whip the Moslem rabble into a frenzy and precipitate a “clash of civilizations.” That, Rose’s eyes, could only benefit Israel. The fact that it also serves to recruit kids to Al Qaeda is a problem for the US, not Israel, so that is of no consequence to Rose.
I note that Pope Benedict, that notorious lefty, deplored the cartoons. He believes, as do I, that giving deep offense to people, even when entirely legal, is no virtue. It is the stuff of tub thumpers who get off on raghead and sand nigger talk.
moflicky
uh, yeah. what do you make of a “civilization” that could be whiped into a frenzy enough to precipitate a clash of civilizations by cartoons as lame and innocuous as those?
Ah, I remember it like it was yesterday…
After exchanging the secret neocon handshake with Rose and Pipes, we started the meeting with a reading from “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and then passed around the traditional goblet of palestinian children’s blood.
We then went over the minutes of the last meeting (Poison Arafat, check. Elect Ahmadinejad in Iran, check. tap the phones of ordinary americans, check.)
“Now, to current business… how will we precipitate the clash of civilizations where the jooooz will finally rule the earth, the way it should be?”
Pipes said “I know, lets get some amateur cartoonists to draw mohammed and print them in an obscure european newspaper?”
“great idea!!!” I said – “that will really whip the moslem masses into a frenzy!!!!”
Rose offered the use of his Danish newspaper, and we all agreed.
The agreement was consumated by another secret handshake and more blood, and we all went off to wait for our evil plan to materialize.
and, as they say, the rest is history….
Slide
scs:
Stormy was talking about intimidation. One can intimidate without using the threat of jail or fines as both of those would be clearly illegal in our great democracy. But, may I add, the Generals that wrote that letter work for ME. They are government employees and as such they (as an official body) have no right to interject themselves in what is politically acceptable or not. The military should stay FAR FAR away from politics as far as I am concerned.
Intimidation is the game of the right wing isn’t it? Isn’t that what the whole Dixie Chicks thing was about? Or Horowitz’s little brown shirts reporting on “leftist” professors? Intimidation by the right is an art form. But, alas, for poor scs it aint quite working the way it used to.
Perry Como
So, Saudi Arabia runs 4 articles a day in their state run (read only) newspapers after the “incident” at the Hajj and Iran’s fingerprints are all over this? People are waving Saudi Arabian flags while they burn down embassies and it’s Iran’s fault?
Awesome.
skip
“After exchanging the secret neocon handshake with Rose and Pipes, we started the meeting with a reading from “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and then passed around the traditional goblet of palestinian children’s blood.”
Wow! That sure didn’t take long. Antisemitism! O-60 in 1 second.
But Rose IS a pal of Pipes and wrote a long lauditory piece on him in 2004.
Morever, are we to ignore the delicious irony in this Danish free speech champion being pals with one of America’s foremost squelchers?
ppGaz
There is no doubt that Iran has Weapons of Mass Discombobulation.
Pooh
You’re right, they’re bugs to be squashed, and given just as much thought…
skip
“uh, yeah. what do you make of a “civilization” that could be whiped into a frenzy enough to precipitate a clash of civilizations by cartoons as lame and innocuous as those?”
But it is not for YOU to decide what is “innocuous,” when it is being judged in the eyes of another culture. Do you want to drive out to River Sioux Iowa and rap the Lakotas on the shoulders and inform them that the Cleveland Indian logo is innocuous?
Pat Buchanon wrote:
“that demagogues and agitators are exploiting those cartoons of Mohammed to advance a war of civilizations and expel Europeans from the Middle East seems undeniable. But that does not excuse the paralyzing stupidity of that Danish paper in running those cartoons – or the arrogant irresponsibility of European newspapers in plastering those cartoons all over their front pages.”
“The Danish paper knew this. It published the cartoons to protest “the rejection of modern, secular society” by Muslims. The cartoons were thus a defiant provocation. And they succeeded.
For this was an in-your-face declaration by the secularist media of the European Union that it will exercise its right to insult any God, any Prophet, any faith, whenever it so chooses.”
“And for what? What was the purpose of this juvenile idiocy by the Europress? Is this what freedom of the press is all about – the freedom to insult the faith of a billion people and start a religious war?”
scs
What the hell are you talking about Pooh. It ain’t all about you and what YOU said. I was replying to Slide and Stormy who talked about “intimidation”. Part of the element of intimidation, as compared to a complaint, is a real or implied threat of some sort of action of reprisal against the complaintee. That’s why I brought up the lack of threat as a missing element of intimidation. Without this element I don’t think it can be considered intimidation. Get it now? If the way I put my words together don’t make sense to you, I suggest a few remedial English classes.
scs
To put it more plainly to you- here’s a little help from Dictionary.com
scs
Pb, first of all, with your grasp of the facts you demonstrated recently, I find it highly suspect you would recognize a Hezbollah flag if it hit you in the face. Second of all, if this is mostly Hezbollah instigated, do you think they would be so stupid to carry their flags to the demos? This is supposed to look like it’s a “spontaneous” act by angry ordinary Muslims, not a party organized event, and I hardly think bringing party flags to the demo would accomplish that goal.
Pooh
Bah, I’m done with you, welcome to the killfile. You shold be proud, because I’m kicking the Senator out to make room for you.
ppGaz
Uh, yeah, that should be ” …. doesn’t make sense to you …”
Pb
scs,
Whoops, you’re right, I am a moron–I replied to you expecting a reasoned debate. I assure you, that was a lapse on my part. It won’t happen again. Congrats on queering the thread, by the way. Also, your talking about ‘facts’ is hilarious, especially in this context, seeing as how you haven’t provided or acknowledged any.
Um, yes? Or are they the ones holding the Hamas flags in Palestine? Inquiring minds want to know.
I see. Because we don’t see them, that proves they’re behind it! Sneaky bastards. I bet they’re the ones who carried off all that WMD to Syria too!
Now run along back under your bridge.
scs
Okay, this is a debate forum, and we are allowed to posit ideas here. I would think you are smart enough to know the difference between a hypothesis and a fact here- or- maybe not. When I said this “The largest and most violent demonstrations were in Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Iran. This is all Hezbollah, funded in large part by Iran”, my point is that when I said “this is all Hezbollah” I meant that a large radical group common to all these countries is Hezbollah. You put two and two together- largest demos in those countries where Hezbollah is strong, support from Iran of Hezbollah, combined with the trouble with Iran, and you come up with a good working hypothesis here. Or do you think it is all spontaneous angry Saudis demonstrating in Palestine and Lebanon? I’d love to see your facts for that.
scs
Okay ppgaz, you got me there with the grammar. I was typing so quickly to rebut, I didn’t take time to edit. I guess even you can be right once.
ppGaz
Yeah, see, the thing is, if you are going to suggest that your adversary needs “remedial English,” you have to use proper grammar in making the suggestion. Otherwise you risk looking ridiculous.
I say, otherwise, you risk looking ridiculous.
Foolish.
Silly.
Egg on yer face.
Sheepish.
scs
By the way Pb, just a little background on Hezbollah from Wikipedia. As you can see, they are much more spread around than Hamas, which stays pretty local to Palestine. Because the demonstrations were in several countries, not just Palestine, I think Hezbollah is a more likely candidate.
scs
Have at it, ppgaz. If it brightens your evening so much that I made a grammatical error, then have a ball. It’s not the first and I’m sure it won’t be the last time here. And don’t forget all the spelling errors I make too.
Frank
That’s my say:
http://backpackersansfrontieres.blogspot.com/2006_02_01_backpackersansfrontieres_archive.html
ppGaz
How can we forget you, when you won’t go away?
Pb
scs,
I don’t see why there has to be one shadowy organization ‘behind this’ in the first place. However, I have at least seen evidence of Hamas participation, which is more than you have shown me regarding Hezbollah (unless they were Hezbollah members in disguise!). I have seen nothing from you above the basest of innuendo and suspicion, which is what I’ve come to expect from those who wish to invade Iran and Syria, and their syncophants.
Bob In Pacifica
Ah, if only I’d invested in that flag-making company a few months back. I was standing there, right next to the assembly line, wondering who’s gonna buy all these Danish flags…
moflicky
I see.
so we all know the rules, no one is allowed to say, do, draw, or write ANYTHING that might possibly be construed as offensive to ANYONE.
I just want to know the rules, because just about everyone here can now shut the hell up because there’s not a word here that couldn’t be construed as being offensive to someone.
you guys are so intellectually disfunctional, it’s not even funny.
Stormy was dead on right. As long as you get to say anything you want in criticism of bush in particular, and conservatives and republicans in general, the rest of that whole free speech thing is just not that important.
hypocrits. every last one of you.
moflicky
hee hee. you guys are hilarious.
the thread was queered from the second comment when paddycakes ignored the real issues at hand and turned into another “this is why we hate bush” discussion.
And every single lefty here refuses to discuss the cartoon jihad in any other terms except “bush is worse” or “it’s bush’s fault”.
talk about yer intellectual dishonesty. actually, I take back the first sentence. you have ceased being funny, you’re just scary.
scs
Well I agreed it is my hypothesis, but the fact that the most violent demonstrations (I heard anyway) were exactly in the countries influenced by Hezbollah leads me to my suspicion. I’m not saying that Hamas wasn’t involved too. I’m not sure about the relationship between Hezbollah and Hamas, but considereing they have a common goal against Israel, maybe it’s possible they work together on occasion.
Pb
moflicky,
Credit where credit is due, I say. Shamelessly using this tragedy to blame (only) Iran and Syria (yet again) is certainly the fault of the Bush administration. It’s not at all new or unexpected either. How’s that war with Iran coming along.
moflicky
pb,
no analysis of the reasons or motives for worldwide demonstrations, no real insight, nothing but “bush didn’t” “bush did”, “bush shoulda”, “bush shouldn’ta”
you make my argument for me. thanks so much for playing.
Pb
moflicky,
You must have missed the part of the story that directly concerned the Bush administration, and their baseless allegations regarding this fiasco. For that matter, I didn’t see any real insight from them either, only “Iran this” and “Syria that”–but thanks for playing.
ppGaz
Don’t know if this has been seen here, but if not, it’s relevant, and funny …. and disturbing
ppGaz
moflicky
Pb,
well, ok – here’s that part.
shifting the controversy from the cartoons (which they condemned) to the regimes that have obviously allowed, encouraged and approved of the demonstrations sounds to me like a sound policy. omitting other regimes maybe was a mistake, but I’m not ready to leave foriegn policy decisions to the likes of you.
can you really believe that if Iran or Syria didn’t think this violence against foreign embassys would be beneficial to them, they would have allowed them to happen? they’d have been crushed mercilessly. They’d still be counting (or hiding) the dead.
so spare me the strained excuse for making this another bash bush thread. doesn’t pass the smell test.
ppgaz posted the only lefty post here that even comes close to understanding the problem, and they weren’t even his words.
StupidityRules
Mofly, the muslims wackos are obviously using this to rally their troops. Also, people who hates all muslims are doing it too. And a lot of Bush supporters seem to have decided to shout about it too since I guess it’s a break from all the problems/scandals facing the current administration.
I wonder how Michelle Malkin feels about the fact that the party that seem to gain the most from this in Denmark, The Danish People’s Party, (recent polls give them about 17-18%) is not only against muslims but also against everyone that isn’t “white”. Well, if she was Danish they would probably allow her to stay because her support despite her being of filipino ancestry.
Pb
moflicky,
Fair enough, and I wouldn’t expect you to–I have no real experience or track record with regard to making foreign policy decisions. However, what I do have experience with is spotting this sort of misleading rhetoric that blames only the states that we don’t like (and without proof, I might add) and conveniently omits all the others.
As for the Muslim cartoon fiasco itself, I don’t see much point in commenting on it, the situation seems pretty clear. Some Muslims in foreign countries don’t entirely understand ‘free speech’–surprise, surprise. Some Muslims are protesting something they object to–yay them, as far as I’m concerned, they have every right to protest whatever they want, within the law. As for burning down embassies, I imagine that’s when the authorities get involved. But I’ll be damned if I see this spun into yet another bogus pretext for war.