Posted on 02/04/2006 6:40:55 AM PST by doctora
February 4, 2006 -- Why did the Bush administration need to insert itself into the increasingly violent worldwide protests by Muslims upset by the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed?
And, having chosen to issue an opinion, why did the administration take a position that is, frankly, shameful and wholly antithetical to the basic freedoms that Americans hold dear?
Even as European and Asian leaders appealed for calm and understanding in the wake of escalating violence, the State Department yesterday came out foursquare in support of the demonstrators — and condemned the "offensive" cartoons.
"These cartoons are indeed offensive to the belief of Muslims," said department spokesman Kurtis Cooper. "We all fully recognize and respect freedom of the press and expression, but it must be coupled with press responsibility."
He'd have done better to call instead for respect for freedom of the press, rather than kowtow to rampaging mobs attempting to intimidate newspapers worldwide.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
But everybody shuts up when the Muslims people of "Peace" hack off the head of a Journalist, or Blow up thousands of men women and children who are innocents.
Our "State Department " should have been cleaned out years ago.
Bush would better serve the American People by Doing SOMETHING ........ANYTHING to stop the invasion from Mexico.
Of course, you did.
The Arabists at the state department?
Printing inflammatory cartoons that are offensive to a militant and terrorist religion is only asking for trouble"
You being alive writing that is offensive to militants and terrorits...
get it?
It ain't the republicans it is the old and very liberal State Department giving their Politically Correct rhetoric...again.
Trying to be sensitive to a maniac cult serves no purpose.
Barbarians don't understand or appreciate 'sensitivity', they only see it as weakness.
Several European newspapers have printed the cartoons...some more than once.
We are supposed to defend free speech. The State Department's version of political correctness will be interpreted instead as political cowardice.
They SHOULD have said the same thing as the Danish government:
We do not have the right, as government, to tell the newpapers what they can and cannot print.
I don't read any opposition to Free Speech in the quotes. What I heard was a call for common sense. Printing inflammatory cartoons that are offensive to a militant and terrorist religion is only asking for trouble. We, the U.S, are too busy fighting terrorists in the Middle East to come to Europe's rescue when they piss of their resident Muslims.Thank you!
I've said the same thing in other threads.
Don't forget our troops. They have Muslim allies they are working with in the field. Don't stab our troops in the back to come to the aid of a bunch of euroweenie ingrates who will piss in our faces when it's all over anyway, whether we help them or not.
"Politician" is a rude profession. It ought not be a profession at all. The only chance a "politician"'s soul has to remain integrated is for the public to be as contemptuous and cynical as possible at every opportunity toward every utterance and action. 
Then fire them and project strength and values. Like I said.
Just do a search on FR for cartoons if you'd like to see them.
Be aware though, there are 3 cartoons NOT in the original printing. They were added by one of the Islamofascits 'leaders' HIMSELF.
Guess he thought the original 12 cartoons weren't hateful enough.
my brain boiled out of my ears when I read the US "governments opinion on this subject yesterday. You elect republicans to project strength and uphold your values. We wind up with liberal pc crapola."
It IS the State Department, always has been and always will be left-leaning, the-rest-of-the-world-is-more-important, among its professionals. Administration in power doesn't much matter.
Thanks for the info.
That's why you clean house when you get into office.
Stop excusing Bush for his own State Department. If he disagrees he should say so publicly. He has done so at least once before. If he does not, we must conclude that he agrees with them, siding with the Sharia-Uber-Alles crowd over Western values. The main problem in this is how everyone keeps saying "Islamic law forbids visual expressions of the 'Prophet'". So what! The people who made these cartoons were NOT Muslims. Are we to conclude that just because Muslims are prone to violence at a moment's notice, that non-Muslims now have to obey Muslim laws? It is absurd, and the State Department's statement was repulsive.
"That's why you clean house when you get into office."
For some reason it never quite works that way, especially at State. Below a certain pay grade, they are protected under civil service protections. There really is no excuse for keeping the higher level people from a prior Administration. It would take a full generation to clean house there ... a generation of GOP presidents uninterrupted by a Dem, and that has never happened.
Please do noy resort to such a spurious argument. We stabbed our Christian troops in the back in 1991 when we ordered them to remove their crosses at the behest of our Muslim "allies" when they were posted those nations. It made a mockery of our supposed defense of "freedom" for Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. It also made a mockery of our own values, in deference to the barbaric Sharia Law.
These cartoons are a crucial line in the sand for the West in its defense against a resurgent Islam. A line we must defend with everything in our power. We are ALL troops in that larger war. The cultural and religious war to preserve Judeo-Christian values against Islam is more important that the conflict in Iraq, and may last 100 years. But we MUST prevail. And if we give in to Sharia Law in our own nations over freedom of speech, we will have lost a critical battle in that war.
Common sense would be publishing more of these cartoons so as to draw the Mooseslime idjits into the open for everyone to see what 8th century murderers and nutballs they truly are.
In diplo-speak this could be read another way: Yes, we know you Muslims find the cartoons offensive, but you too should act responsibly with your own press.
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