eudaemonia

Relax with the over-analysis

It seems as if opinions over the great cartoon catharsis are trying to attribute its salience to the current war on the terror and Iran’s nuclear issue. There is no doubt that the broad framework of fanatical Islamic aggression does lend itself to this interpretation. But I think that otherwise circumspect bloggers like Wretchard give too much value to the supposed repercussions or impact of this episode. Perusing some of the news on this topic it seems as if certain Danish Imams did engage in a demagogic PR campaign to whip up whatever anti-western sentiment they could muster. But it is a far cry from these facts to then state that one contender in a global struggle may have tipped its hand too early! What we have here, in my humble opinion, is Islamists having become accustomed to the supplicant Danes, throwing a hissy-fit over the Danes reasonable support for free speech. The Islamo-facist [IF] have heretofore been successful in overcoming any sense of nationalism by Danes in class rooms and other venues why not free press? Add to this, we have the drama of the Syrian state apparently facilitating if not actively fomenting the burning of the Danish embassy. I sympathize with that part of Wretchard’s analysis stating that the IF gambit has not as of this moment played in their favor. Iran has been sent to the UNSC and Syria is now held responsible by the US. But these facts show the fragmented and unstrategic nature of the cartoon row, not a premature launch of a global strategy. To his credit, Wretchard does admit that historical analogies to the appeasement strategy of pre-WWII are not a perfect fit. These caveats notwithstanding, we must not attribute a salience to issues they do not have.

posted by spelunker @ 9:02 AM