I’ll also concede that Dan is correct that American humanitarian aid has helped the American image somewhat in the targeted countries – I was thinking along the lines of Arab public opinion instead of the general Muslim world which is, of course, quite diverse in its interests. Nevertheless, State message was still remarkably boneheaded and inept.
Page 2 of 2 | Previous page
Daniel Nexon:
February 5th, 2006 at 5:36 pm
“If helping the Bosnian Muslims, Indonesian Tsunami victims and Pakistani earthquake victims barely made a dent in negative public images Muslims have of America, verbal concessions on a cartoon are not going to do the trick.”
Actually, the last two apparently made an enormous difference in these respective countries.
For some very interesting commentary on the protests, see raf*’s post at the excellent ‘Aqoul
Anonymous:
February 5th, 2006 at 6:42 pm
Frankly, the real reason they are so responsive to these protests is that Danish companies are suffering substantial financial losses due to these cartoons.
Lots of people really don’t care about the politics of this GWOT. What they do care about is money and this is costing them a lot.
Anonymous:
February 5th, 2006 at 7:10 pm
“… the … reason they are … responsive to these protests is that Danish companies are suffering … financial [loss]”
No. It’s fear.
And that is well-founded, unfortunately. This may well be the first cartoon-inspired murder:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4683548.stm
Here is one of the most perceptive articles yet to run – it’s from one of the Telegraph’s best writers, Charles Moore:
http://www.portal.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2006/02/04/do0402.xml
Other voices over here in the UK have been interesting to read, too. John Casey mounted a spirited defence of the notion that publication was bad manners as it touched upon people’s notion of “the sacred” in the Sunday Telegraph. (Incidentally, that other well-known Hegelian conservative, Roger Scruton, gave a short quote to the Times (of London) saying much the same.)
I felt, however, that Casey’s argument only worked as far as it did because he completely failed to discuss important and pressing aspects of the affair.
Others, such as the pompous Simon Jenkins at the Times, and the leader writer at the Observer (both pieces linked at Spectator), produced unpleasant copy that blended self-satisfaction and cringing servility in a thoroughly distateful manner.
Anonymous:
February 6th, 2006 at 5:17 am
Mark
this site has interesting details on black propaganda and the cartoon jihad… it seems the BBC may have used some of the fake cartoons itself though this has not been publicly noted in UK MSM…
http://counterterror.typepad.com/
UK fan
mark:
February 9th, 2006 at 5:28 am
“Others, such as the pompous Simon Jenkins at the Times, and the leader writer at the Observer (both pieces linked at Spectator), produced unpleasant copy that blended self-satisfaction and cringing servility in a thoroughly distateful manner.”
Belated response from me but…Heh.
I’m glad to hear that the Nation magazine has not cornered the cringing servility market in the English-speaking world. :o)
Will try to get to some of this – still thinking about the earlier Nietzschean comment – when work allows me to catch a breath.