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East vs West ... They really don't get it.
I understand that the President of Iran is calling for a "Holocaust Cartoon Contest" in the hopes of proving that the West has a double standard when it comes to freedom of speech. Well this mental midget has highlighted once more the tenuous grasp he has on the reality of the "West". First of all, there are tons of Anti-Semites out there who would jump at the chance to doodle a little "Auschwitz Antics" or "Treblinka Frolics". That's a no brainer. What he doesn't understand is that (at least in America) we are going through a major test of freedom of speech right now (those of you who have been reading my blog know this) and for now, the right is winning.
For now ...
Certainly (at least as far as the jerk off in Iran is concerned) the West is going to show how tolerant they are and allow the contest to proceed (they will condemn it in a dignified manner) and then underscore how nobody was killed over it, no embassies were evacuated because of it and most of all how the Middle Eastern followers of Allah, just don't understand us.
This may be true.
But they don't have to understand us. In fact, they never will. You can not reason with extremist fundamentalists. There is no compromise with someone who is in a rush to meet Allah and who wants to take you with him. Bush and his cronies didn't understand that 3 years ago and they still don't undertstand that now. So when they removed the evil "Saddam" from power (a secular cruel dictator, but not a fundamentalist wacko) they succeeded in replacing him with fundamentalists all over the Middle East. Do you think it's an accident that Hamas won the election in Palestine? Would they have won if the US hadn't taken up a course of unilateral pissing off the rest of the globe? I don't know.
We will never know.
The real question is, who doesn't understand who?
I think they understand us as much as they need to. It's the West that needs to do it's homework.
Of course, if we had a president who picked up a newspaper once in while ....
For now ...
Certainly (at least as far as the jerk off in Iran is concerned) the West is going to show how tolerant they are and allow the contest to proceed (they will condemn it in a dignified manner) and then underscore how nobody was killed over it, no embassies were evacuated because of it and most of all how the Middle Eastern followers of Allah, just don't understand us.
This may be true.
But they don't have to understand us. In fact, they never will. You can not reason with extremist fundamentalists. There is no compromise with someone who is in a rush to meet Allah and who wants to take you with him. Bush and his cronies didn't understand that 3 years ago and they still don't undertstand that now. So when they removed the evil "Saddam" from power (a secular cruel dictator, but not a fundamentalist wacko) they succeeded in replacing him with fundamentalists all over the Middle East. Do you think it's an accident that Hamas won the election in Palestine? Would they have won if the US hadn't taken up a course of unilateral pissing off the rest of the globe? I don't know.
We will never know.
The real question is, who doesn't understand who?
I think they understand us as much as they need to. It's the West that needs to do it's homework.
Of course, if we had a president who picked up a newspaper once in while ....
I was a really fucking Super-Walmart!
(Anonymous)
Holocaust Cartoons
How much is the cash prize?
(Anonymous)
puss
And yes, I do love Robin Williams .... NANO NANO
Probably just another needle dick coward who's too scared of his own shadow.
BTW, fieldingmellish? You're a geek! :-P
(Anonymous)
This is a very well stated post. If only there were more level headed people like you. And Bush is hooked on phonics didn't you know?....so a newspaper or book would be asking wayyyy too much! ;D
sdit
http://pretenpret.blogspot.com/
(Anonymous)
I saw a beautiful movie a week back, something like "Turtles Can't Fly', set in Iraq, before the downfall of Saddam. It put a few things in perspective, and I'm damn glad Saddam went, but we just could have handled it a little better. (huge understatement..) Bush is the last man for the job..
Good post.
I love Robin Williams too! ;-)
Chandira
(Anonymous)
Great post!
I know the common perception is that Ahmadinejad is a “mental midget”, but leave room for the possibility that he isn’t; leave room for the possibility that he’s far more intelligent, evil, and conniving than anyone has given him credit for, and leave room for the possibility that everything he’s said and done to date has been calculated maneuvers to egg on the Western world.
The contest proves that the West can’t stop the contest, without some sort of large-scale military engagement. Ahmadinejad has been saying for months that the US is overextended in Iraq and Afghanistan, and he uses games like this to point it out whenever possible. And running the contest also allows him to push the West to print these cartoons when they are published, or incite riots because our media is biased, even though he knows it’s because these cartoons will be far more offensive.
I think of it like a chess match, and believe me, Ahmadinejad is willing to sacrifice every piece to win the game. It’s a scary proposition, especially since right now the US and the rest of the West is making every move that plays into the hands of our opponents. I did a week long examination of the conflict last week, as part of my series on the top 10 dangers in the world, and I wish I had this piece then, as I would have written about it. As it stands, I might write about it today. Good writing!
One final word on making the wrong moves: for quite some time, Iran has been this scary, and only one thing has kept it from growing in strength and become a total monster in the region: the existence of an equally scary Iraq at its border. Like India is to Pakistan, Iraq and Iran are the checks and balances that keep each other from expanding too far. Our two wars in Iraq have negated that check, allowing the threat to grow.
--Scottage
http://scottageb.blogspot.com
(I don’t have a live journal account either)