The clash of Islamic culture vs. Western culture is coming to a head faster than I think most expected. Rodney King asked the seminal question years ago. "Can we get along here? Can we all get along?" Of course, he wasn't the first to ask that question, and his plea to Los Angeles Rioters has often been put in the more succinct, "Can't we all just get along?"

When the citizens of one of the most metropolitan of American Cities can descend into a veritable orgy of rioting, pillaging and burning that requires the mobilization and deployment of the National Guard, can we really expect the citizens of theocratic and dogmatic nations to really do any better?

Freedom of Speech, and tolerance have been tested time and again in the United States, and so far the forces of tolerance have been victorious. Christianity in its many forms has mellowed to the point that it is not going to spark mass riots and burn down government, or even media facilities in reaction to offensive presentations. They will speak up against presentations that they see as offensive, and threaten and even implement boycotts, and there might be isolated incidents of violence against individuals, but if Christians were as aggressive as their Moslem counterparts a whole lot of Western Media would have burned to the ground long ago.


I understand the position of those that feel that the publishing of offensive cartoons is probably a bad idea. The problem of course is that creates a society where you can't offend anyone, and true discourse can't occur in such a society. The fact that the American Media has studiously avoided re-publishing the offensive images is an interesting conundrum. I tend to feel that it is basic "gutlessness" that has driven that decision, but interestingly enough it actually strengthens America's position when it comes to middle east intervention. This makes clear to the European nations that this isn't simply a middle east vs. the United States issue, but rather an "Extremist Muslim" vs. Western values issue.

The unfortunate part of this is that it wll likely get a lot worse before it gets any better. Terrorism is basically the proxy for those people that are willing to give up their lives for their way of life. They want a war, but they can't really wage one, so they move to terrorist actions. the problem with this is that they won't get the sort of body count that a proper war would give them, and so they are unlikely to get tired of dying, and on the other side of the equation, it is unlikely that the peacekeepers will really get tired of killing them because they just aren't killing all that many of them. Western media has a really low tolerance for seeing Westerners die though, and that's what the terrorists play to.

Unfortunately, this is only the beginning. It will be pretty interesting if the Europeans decide to take action before the United States does though.

"The Palestinian people have voted in elections. And now the leaders of Hamas must recognize Israel, disarm, reject terrorism, and work for lasting peace. " - G.W. Bush, State of the Union Address, January 31, 2006 http://www.whitehouse.gov/stateoftheunion/2006/index.html

I heard this, and in my mind I was asking "Or what?" The people of Palestine have spoken, and they have democratically chosen to support the organization that is considered a terrorist group by the United States. If they back down on that position, aren't they betraying their electorate? Do we think that the voters of Palestine have chosen the terrorists so that they can change their tune? If the voters of Palestine don't understand what they were supporting, is democracy really working there? Are they being hoodwinked? Or is democracy working, and they are in agreement with Hamas' platform? It is certainly possible that they were voting AGAINST Fatah, but even that is an indication of the political will of the Palestinian people. I'm not familiar with Palestinian politics, but if they can't field a party that really is moderate, dedicated to peace, and willing to engage with Israel and the world, doesn't that say something about the Palestinian people?

I do realize that from the American foreign policy point of view, the or what really is a cutoff of foreign aid to the Palestinians. But is that really going to convince Hamas to chanbe their position, or just strengthen it by reinforcing a bunker mentality that is already viewed as a terrorist organization.