What The Hand Dare Seize The Fire...
At first blush it was fairly easy to sympathize with the poor Danes. Who wants to see an orchestrated movement of Danish flag-burning? Or cyber-attacks on Danish web sites. And yet... While the mainstream, typically, ignored the warning signs, soon enough it came out that Flemming Rose, the editor who solicited the cartoons and published them, is something of a fly-by-night Danish neocon.
So here we have a gentleman who, with malice aforethought, deliberately undertook to provide offense in the knowledge that he would provoke violent reactions from his targets. Lest we forget, it's not as if the Europeans practice full freedom of speech – as Pat Buchanan recently pointed out. So from many Muslim points of view they were not only singled out for blasphemous ridicule, but their tormentors remain largely protected from reciprocal taunts by inequitable yet exceedingly severe legal penalties.
Adding insult to injury the US government in the form of the redoubtable Condi advanced spurious claims (sorry, no permalink there) that the Iranians and Syrians were whipping up their heathen mobs.
What's the real story? In the larger scheme of things this is part and parcel of a propaganda war to further radicalize sentiment both in the West and the Islamic world. As in so many conflicts, perhaps all conflicts, the radical zealots on either side work overtime to squeeze out the rational middle.
Posted by George Kenney on February 9, 2006 1:22 PM 
« Juggernaut Gathering Momentum, Headed for Iran | Main | The Katrina Response »
Comments
keep up the good work excellent interviews
Posted by: Craig | February 10, 2006 9:00 AM