Just Wondering…
Now that Newsweek is saying the desecration of the Qur’an never happened, are we going to get apologies from the asshats who desecrated our flag in response?
Now that Newsweek is saying the desecration of the Qur’an never happened, are we going to get apologies from the asshats who desecrated our flag in response?
May 16th, 2005 at 2:42 pm
Are you out of your mind?
This isn’t really about Newsweek… there are so many reasons why people in the Middle East hate Americans. Our flag will be torched regardless of how many apologies are made…
I’m not saying it’s right, exactly, but I am saying that it’s inevitable. Maybe if we take over more countries, then they’ll think we’re ok!
May 16th, 2005 at 4:33 pm
I wasn’t really serious… I just question how much we should value the opinions of those who are unwilling to extend the same courtesies that they demand from others.
BTW, Foreign Affairs ran a really good article called “The Real Root of Arab Anti-Americanism” a year or so back I believe. Very insightful.
May 17th, 2005 at 5:40 pm
It seems a bit disingenuous to say that it “never happened.” It has been complained about, in print, multiple times before Newspeak picked it up. In light of all the other events surrounding prisoner abuse, it seems very reasonable that such a thing *could* have happened.
Newspeak claimed that a Pentagon report would confirm the occurence. After having reviewed and implicitly approved the story, the Pentagon then waited 10 days after publication to deny that it was ever investigated.
I’m hardly a defender of trash like Newsweek, but you have to admit that this whole thing has been way overblown. A mountain of evidence clearly shows that prisoners were abused in horrible ways and that there religious customs were mocked and degraded. The administration is using this single technicality in an attempt to discredit all claims of abuse. It is more than a little similar to the coup they pulled with Bush’s AWOL scandal, where they managed to use a single, irrelevant forgery to dismiss a pile of solid, credible evidence. This little bit of intellectual slight-of-hand seems to be their new favorite technique.
May 17th, 2005 at 10:12 pm
Without any compelling evidence that it *did* happen, it isn’t fair to asert that it *has*.
You’re also missing the central point. If someone is going to shit all the symbols *we* hold dear, why should one by sympathetic to when their symbols are desecrated?
May 18th, 2005 at 5:00 pm
Chicago Chicago Chicago
(oh, sorry, I got carried away with the spam circumvention.)
That’s not terribly fair. All symbols ain’t equal. AT&T’s death star isn’t a cross, and Old Glory ain’t exactly the bible. Flags are not objects of reverence and worship on par with religious imagery (well, in my opinion. Certain folks may disagree with me, but they’re scary people).
In the end, it’s all about communication. If a flag represents the policies, actions, and beliefs of a nation, then burning a flag communicates a level of disagreement with those policies… And it does so without actually harming anyone. I don’t take it personally. They are just powerless people expressing their frustration.
I’m not calling you racist, so please don’t take it that way, but there’s a certain amount of racism implied in the way you say “us” and “them.” (if not racism then some form oversimplification) The guys burning the flag aren’t the guys who claim they were beaten and tortured and had their holy books flushed in the toilet. The logic is something like, “Frank stole my car, so I have every right to steal Jane’s moped.”
And reasonable people can always disagree, right?
May 18th, 2005 at 10:58 pm
Absolutely, but neither of us are going to have a reasonable conversation with the asshats in the photo.
May 19th, 2005 at 11:44 am
Is it just me, or does that guy on the far left looks suspiciously like a certain bearded Guatarmenian we both know?
I think I have a hot tip for Homeland Security…