Oh, yes, these countries are the villains du jour. But what about the conviniently omitted Saudi Arabia, America's staunch ally in the war on terror? Is it entirely blameless? I am not sure.

Posted by: Liggett at February 8, 2006 2:18 PM

COUNTRIES IN WHICH THE CARTOONS HAVE NOW APPEARED:

"The furore spread to Australia, South Africa, Ukraine, Romania and, most significantly, Israel, as newspapers there printed the cartoons, bringing to 24 the number of countries in which they have appeared. As well as Denmark, the cartoons had already been printed in Austria, Norway, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, the Irish Republic, Spain, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Hungary, United States, Japan, New Zealand, Jordan, Malaysia and Poland, where the editor of a leading daily and the Foreign Ministry apologised yesterday for any offence."

Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2028037,00.html

Posted by: Kafir Nonbeliever at February 8, 2006 2:23 PM

Tail Wagging The Dog

classic coverup for something.

Posted by: GodfreyBouillon at February 8, 2006 2:44 PM

Now while i dont trust the moslem world, i have even less trust in Mrs. Rice and her Big Boss GWB. That lady cant tell her own head from her ass. Lady looks like Darth Vador. George Bush and his cronies are just as bad for world peace as the moslems.

Posted by: jawknee at February 8, 2006 3:25 PM

One of these days she will wake up and realize how wrong the Administration has been about Muslims and Islam! Reality has a date with Rice... a Muslim dish eaten with healthy helpings of crow...

Posted by: jsla at February 8, 2006 3:34 PM

And I guess that Iran & Syria influenced those Mohammedan demonstrators in Europe to cope up with those wholesome placards? Like "Be prepared for the real holocaust!"

Last night, on the Fox roundtable, Mara Liasson made a similar idiot of herself by trying to connect the demonstrations with the repressive nature of the regimes, while holding Afghanistan as an exception. How about these others - Indonesia, Bahrein? And what about Muslims demonstrating outside the Danish embassy in Bangkok, or Jamia Millia University in Delhi? Are they also swung by the likes of Ahmadinejad & Assad?

Dick Morris these days seems to have made it a personal mission to get Rice to run in 2008. I for one disagree, and hope she doesn't. We need someone who recognizes the threat we face, and now is not the time for either party to look for their first black/woman/jew/(fill in your interest group) president.

Posted by: Infidel Pride at February 8, 2006 3:59 PM

Infidel Pride:

I suspect Syria or Iran may have been behind the Danish embassy arson in Beirut, not to mention Damascus, where nothing happens unless Bashir says so, but Judith Apter Kinghoffer puts the rest down to our friends in the KSA in the National Review On-line:

"This intifada, like the Palestinian one which preceded it, has multiple purposes. Remaking Europe is one. Saving the hide of Arab autocrats is another. It has long been said that if Israel didn't exist, Arab governments would have to invent her. Recently, Israel has lost much of its usefulness as the perennial scapegoat. Nothing symbolized it better than the global outrage generated by Ahmadinejad’s questioning of the Holocaust and his call to wipe Israel off the map. Ahmadinejad and his defenders were right. He merely said what he and countless Arab leaders have been saying for decades. Only times they’ve changed. Be that as it may, the search for a new scapegoat was on and the cartoons helped them settle on little Denmark. But why now? Why not four months ago?

Well, it took time to put all the pieces in place and the Saudis did not wish to do anything which may affect their final admission into the World Trade Organization. After all, trade negotiators had trouble enough finding a legal way to admit the kingdom into the international organization without it having to end officially the boycott of Israeli goods. The Saudis entered the WTO on Dec. 11, 2005, and their yearly international Jeddah Economic Forum is to start on February 11, 2006. There was also the Haj to worry about. In ended on January 11. In mid-January Saudi-government controlled newspapers began to run up to four articles per day condemning the Danish cartoons. The Saudi government demanded Denmark issue a formal apology and when Fogh refused, the call went out for worldwide protests. Denmark is not invited to the Jeddah conference. Will the world say nyet to such exclusion this time? It does not seem so."

— Judith Apter Klinghoffer, Fulbright professor at Aarhus University, Denmark, is the author of Vietnam, Jews and the Middle East: Unintended Consequences co-author of International Citizens' Tribunals: Mobilizing Public Opinion to Advance Human Rights and History News Network blogger.

Posted by: waterdragon52 at February 8, 2006 4:40 PM

jsla,

You look too contemptuously upon human mind; it is much more elastic than it seems to be. Rice will practice all kinds of mental gymnastics to avoid seeing what is obvious.

Posted by: Liggett at February 8, 2006 4:43 PM

classic coverup for something.
Posted by: GodfreyBouillon [TypeKey Profile Page] at February 8, 2006 02:44 PM

did you see black helocopters as well? people who think up conspiracies need not much proof to get thigns going.. for all the things l wish Condi and Bush crowd would come and say, they are far ahead of the mark in comparison with ol bubba Clinton and the peanut farmer Carter.. these two last presidents will be regarded as the worst, since it was Carter's betrayel of the Shad if Iran that let in the grand pubah Koemini back into Iran, and then ol bubba Clinton gave nuke information, fuel, to N.Korea, which in turn sent that information to Iran! although far from perfect, at least Bush is steafast and is actually doing something. with Kerry and the gang, you would have the 100th bad letter sent to some bad dictator. thugs in muslims lands only respect brute force.

Posted by: Lulu at February 8, 2006 5:04 PM

The tide is turning in the cartoon jihad, but the tide seems to be heading out to sea:

At the same time, Bush admonished the press that its freedom comes with "the responsibility to be thoughtful about others."...He also criticised anything that vilified Muhammad or attacked Muslim sensibilities.

[Chirac said] Anything that can hurt the convictions of another, particularly religious convictions, must be avoided," he said. "Freedom of expression must be exercised in a spirit of responsibility.

The Vatican... said freedom of expression does not include the right to offend religious sentiments..."We shouldn't diminish the love and respect Muslims have for their prophet Mohammed. This is very important for them and therefore cannot be the object of derision or ridicule," he said.

The United Nations, the Organisation of the Islamic Conference and the European Union issue a joint statement calling for restraint from all sides.

[Ed: restraint from all sides? Are all sides acting as rampaging killer mobs?]

[Kofi Anan said] We believe freedom of the press entails responsibility and discretion, and should respect the beliefs and tenets of all religions.

The [Jyllands-Posten] Danish paper has come under mounting pressure, at home and abroad, after publishing the drawings in September. Former Foreign Minister Uffe Ellemann-Jensen said Wednesday on national radio that "when an editor in chief admits he made an erroneous judgment ... he should quit."

Posted by: special_guest at February 8, 2006 5:09 PM

"George Bush and his cronies are just as bad for world peace as the moslems."

-- Posted by Jawknee

Jawknee: World peace is not the objective. The objective is an effective defense of civilization from destruction by a primitive, barbarian, and parasitic ideology. One guarantee: As long as there is Islam, there will not be world peace. You had better get used to it. Go home and drink your Kool-aide and let the adults deal with reality.

Posted by: Stendec at February 8, 2006 5:29 PM

Seems damn hard to me to offer any kind of an apology to a barbaric society that revels in public displays of murdering innocent people.

They have no respect for life and therefore don't deserve it. I say F**k them and the camel they ride on.

Posted by: Goldenrod at February 8, 2006 6:20 PM

Rice and Bush are just using realpolitik diplomatic judo to give some of the deadly Cartoon Jihad's blame to very-guilty scum in power in Syria and Iran, -while the worldwide Islamic militants, who are deserving the rest of the "credit" for inciting a reckless global riot over doodles, are left looking like duped puppets of measly Muslim dictators.

It's not a bad strategy.

And it beats more of their usual cringing and apologizing or the obtuse mea culpas about the "noble" "religion" that Bush and Rice have trotted out far too many times before.

(Viz.- Rice's nervous repetition of the phrase "The Holy Koran" during the mythical Koran-flushing flap.)

Their defense of freedom of the press, of conscience, and of expression are pathetic, however.

Maybe Condi and George need to watch the Western martyr-to-freethought Theo Van Gogh's short film "Submission". Then view the DOA photos of this valiant Dutch writer, film-maker, artist and sardonic gadfly. Since Air Force One espresso doesn't seem to be enough to keep them alert to the true scope of the danger.

A phone call to Hirsi Ali wouldn't hurt, either.

Posted by: profitsbeard at February 8, 2006 7:14 PM

It is War and it is when any Nation-Entity is at War to destroy another and for sure, there are No Free Rides, No Innocent Civilians, for All Citizens are the Nation, an entity.
The Muslim-Islam enemies of all kafir and Israel obviously know how to make & win a World War from cradle to grave.
Israel, World, and Friends, must some day, make-up its collective mind about how to Do a war and one by whatever means for this one for Total Uncompromising Victory, no deals evil, it's where one must totally destroy all the enemy.
Mo-Allah and friends-Advocates for Islam, wrote and are writing their own success story, today's Road Map for Islam Victory by the Sword of Islam, destroy all unbelievers-kafir.
I just don't know how we did/can overlook this Living 1350 year written document of War against us.

Posted by: SirSeth at February 9, 2006 5:27 AM