Posted on 02/11/2006 6:30:21 AM PST by XR7
The cartoon furor is no longer about Them. It's about Us, and how we're going to respond to Them. By "Us," I mean people who support the Western ideal of free speech, even when it offends.
The conflagration over a cartoon in a Danish newspaper greatly clarifies things, especially for Europe. It used to be commonplace that a flawed American foreign policy was the root of most Muslim unhappiness. Now, the poster children for peace-loving Continentals — Denmark and Norway — are having their embassies torched across the Muslim world.
In police states where people get shot for holding up the wrong sign, crowds are given free rein to smash up European consulates and Christian churches. The puppet masters have big agendas. And for them, stirring anger against the West does have its uses.
Want to end the violence? Want the proclaimed boycotts against Danish goods to go away? It's simple. Launch a reverse boycott against the elites of the countries whose citizens are now taking out their ignorance, envy and self-pity on European institutions.
Tell the various strongmen, sheiks and clerics that they may no longer partake of the pleasures and comforts of the West, while inciting the masses at home. Henceforth, Saudi princes may not come to the great medical centers of Berlin or Boston to have their cancer treated. The militant mullahs can't send their children to private schools in England. The men who cultivate anti-West paranoia among their impoverished masses may not own villas on the Côte d'Azur. And their wives may no longer shop on the Via Veneto.
The West could also ban direct imports. The European Union has already told Saudi Arabia that a boycott of Danish goods would be regarded as a boycott of the European Union. That's a good start — and far more self-respecting than the craven response of our own State Department. Not a few red-blooded Americans cringed at hearing department spokesman Justin Higgins call the cartoon "unacceptable."
The American media's generally spineless response has been likewise embarrassing. Papers that ran cartoons of pedophilic Catholic priests chasing altar boys would not print the Danish drawing (which shows the prophet Muhammad with a bomb as a turban).
Britain's media were no better. The editor at The Independent gave as his singularly lame excuse that it was not a "good" cartoon. This is the same newspaper that portrayed a naked Ariel Sharon eating a Palestinian baby. The Independent's cartoon judgment is clearly based not on what offends an audience, but on which audience it is afraid of.
By contrast, newspapers in France, Spain and elsewhere on the Continent showed solidarity for their besieged Danish colleagues by publishing the cartoon. The Italian daily La Stampa put it on its front page.
As everyone knows, the cartoon is important not because it was a good cartoon, but because it is news. That America's great dailies forced their readers to go to the Drudge Report to see what the story was about will be discussed for years to come.
A retaliatory boycott against the leading promoters of anti-West hatred, Iran and Saudi Arabia, presents obvious problems, because their chief export is oil. The Europeans have already greatly reduced their reliance on oil by taxing the stuff and otherwise discouraging consumption. On this score, Americans have done next to zero. Their passivity is insane in that their oil-guzzling habits are paying for the terrorism being directed against them.
As with most problems, President Bush prefers to let future generations solve this one. The mostly toothless energy proposals listed in his State of the Union address were similarly "forward-looking." Barron's columnist Alan Abelson envisioned Bush comforting the Saudi ambassador by pointing out that they would both be old men "before any of his energy proposals had the faintest chance of bearing fruit."
Westerners must be clear that we establish our own rules about what's acceptable in our own countries — and that the job of defusing the crazed masses belongs squarely with their manipulators. The West, after all, can make life a lot less pleasant for the puppeteers.
Providence Journal columnist Froma Harrop's column appears regularly on editorial pages of The Times. Her e-mail address is fharrop@projo.com
What an idiot. It wasn't President Bush that filibustered to make sure we did NOT get to develop our own oil sources in Alaska. The people who are preferring to "leave it to future generations" are losers like this author who rabidly oppose any short or intermediate solutions in their fantasy dream land notion that we can simply wish oil to go away NOW. Basic point about the Muzzies sane, rest of this article utter rabid stupidity.
It gets on my last nerve when these pundits fault President Bush for not doing something about oil dependence. Where is the support for drilling in places like Anwar? If we could find our own sources of oil it would break dependence.
"What an idiot. It wasn't President Bush that filibustered to make sure we did NOT get to develop our own oil sources in Alaska."
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The author only spoke to the lack of oil conservation measures in this country....and she is right. She did not address oil exploration or oppose it or blame Bush for the lack of it....
I believe we need both...conservation and exploration....in order to get out from under Arab oil.
It's a start. Keep them out of our schools, Vegas, Disney, cruise ships. They want outhouse countries? Let them stay there...
You really believe she's an idiot?
Re-read the article.
Our leaders are the idiots for letting this violence continue, placating the despots of the "Muslim World" and referring to this death-cult as a "Religion of Peace."
This whole deal was enough for me. It's time to call for an end to this false religion. I think it needs to be eradicated in its entirety. Soon.
Some of these puppet masters are right here in the U.S.
I am sorry but "Conservation" is simply another name for Big Govt. Socialism. What people like this author mean is to impose economic sacrifices on the people through the exigency of the Govt just so their elitist egos can pat themselves on the back for being "Enviormentalists"
Read what she wrote. Her solution is to push for more of the Jimmy Carter era failed "Enrollment" policies. The solution, opposed religiously by people like this author, is getting the Govt OUT OF THE WAY. We have MORE then enough energy sources. The PROBLEM is the extremism eviromentalism have so priced everything out of the market with their socialist legal and regulatory roadblocks foreign oil is the cheapest bang for the buck.
Arab oil is the biggest energy bang for the least buck. The solution is NOT some fantasy "conservation" plan but getting the Govt OUT of the way. We have MORE then enough coal, nuclear and shale oil sources HERE. We are addicted to cheap foreign oil because the senile old 60s Eviros are stuck on the stupid notion that they can simply wish oil away. So we do NOTHING to develop our own short and interim energy sources because the wacko empty headed environs think they can simply wish us to leap 50 years into the future by wishing oil away.
We did not become an oil based economy over night, we will not cease to be an oil based economy over night. That fact does NOT change no matter how many deranged fantasies about "oil conservation" the Socialist Left dreams up
Which religion are you referring to? Islam or Socialism? Can you say "agitprop?"
Conservative really need to watch what they embrace. Just because you agree with her notions about the Muzzies DOES not make her on the same side as you for everything else. YOU better go re-read what she is selling her. This is just another establishment Enviro pushing for more of the failed Jimmy Carter era "conservation" nonsense. What they mean by "Conservation" is a massive expansion of the Govt to micromanage every aspect of YOUR life so THEY can feel good about THEIR Environmental purity. NO THANK YOU.
One of the Arab countries, probably Iran, is demanding the protestors switch their hatred and condemnation from Denmark to the US, so it looks as if caving to Islamofascism won't work for Uncle Sam. We're doomed.
The concept of socialism will always be around because it works so well in theory to young people. Only the benefit of life experience cleanses it from them. In most cases, anyway.
I guess, to you, all those conservation measures...rationing etc..that were done during WW2 to facilitate the war effort were a bunch of nonsense too.
If our troops can sacrifice their lives for us...we can certainly sacrifice a bit over here to help the WOT. And getting out from under Arab oil is of prime importance in that effort.
Until we find that endless oil reserve you refer too...and I am definitely in favor of exploration...conservation is a good tool to meeting our goal.
"The American media's generally spineless response has been likewise embarrassing."
Is the American media really spineless? Oh, my. I'm shocked! There's goes my world view...
Although I agree with part of your premise, I think you need to get out more. Global socialism is on the rise.
Ethanol plants are multiplying and stations will quadruple this year. Ford is notifying customers that thy are driving one of a million flex fuel cars already on the road. They are making fuel oil out of turkey plant refuse in MO and out of trash in Philadelphia. Cowshit is fueling ethanol plants in Texas and pigshit is used in Indiana. Both Governor Patwaki in NY and Bush in Fl have had business summits to promote ethanol. In FL a scientist developed an ecoli bacterium to digest citrus peel waste to make the stuff.
Obviously, GM and Ford have to retool to bring these vehicles to market, but necessary changes are relayed to us as bankrupcy, plant closing, and layoffs. Why is this whole thing being so badly ignored and miscovered? Certainly, it is the result of many years of public policy and private enterprise. Are liberals unhappy that this would come to pass on Bush's watch? They like to paint him as antienviornmentalist, though he is anything but. He led Texas power deregulation with targets for alternate sources that produced surpluses that compensated for failed CA policies. His own home is state of the art energy efficient.
Or, are they so tapped into government command economics that they cannot see free enterprise responses when they are springing up everywhere?
Obviously, GM and Ford have to retool to bring these vehicles to market, but necessary changes are relayed to us as bankrupcy, plant closing, and layoffs. Why is this whole thing being so badly ignored and miscovered? Certainly, it is the result of many years of public policy and private enterprise. Are liberals unhappy that this would come to pass on Bush's watch? They like to paint him as antienviornmentalist, though he is anything but. He led Texas power deregulation with targets for alternate sources that produced surpluses that compensated for failed CA policies. His own home is state of the art energy efficient. Four or five corps have pooled investment to build a clean coal plant that sequesters CO2 in the ground. Although everyone rags him about a Kyoto treaty the senate refused to ratify, he has negoiated a Pacific initiative to sell clean power technology to China and India that will be lucrative.
Or, are they so tapped into government command economics that they cannot see free enterprise responses when they are springing up everywhere?
"I am sorry but "Conservation" is simply another name for Big Govt. Socialism. "
Huh? Conservation was born from conservatism. Don't equate conservation with ecoterrorism and socialism.
"This whole deal was enough for me. It's time to call for an end to this false religion. I think it needs to be eradicated in its entirety. Soon."
I recall the uproar a couple of years ago when Pat Robertson called Muslim a violent religion. I, too, thought he was totally out of line at the time. But now, two years hence,I don't think so.
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