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We also get significantly different news in the US than in much of the world. In some cases that is bad (the half-million Iraqi civillians killed in the Gulf War who show up in the European press but not on CNN), but in other cases it is a very good thing. Those dancing Palestinians on CNN only have the image of the US that their government wants them to have. They only see the US supporting their enemy (Israel), shooting cruise missiles at their friends (Afghanistan in 1998), hunting down their allies, and having a country full of large-breasted women without brains (Baywatch). They don't see the rest. They don't get the good bits but only a skewed version of this country that is quite a distance from reality when you really get down to it.
We take for granted the extraordinary freedom of information we have here (and the lack of it that most of the rest of the world faces). If your Saab broke down in Afghanistan, for example, where would you get a computer with an internet connection to ask Ari about your brakes... So I can understand the dancing Palestinians. They don't really understand what has happened. They don't realize that we are just as human as they are and not the horrible heathen monsters they've been told, that the people who died were not military, but civilians with families... That being said, it in no way excuses what happened, but it does explain how people could do something so shortsighted -- something that will so obviously cause the deaths of many more people when those responsible are found (and how many of them will be family members of people we have seen dancing over the past two days). And when the bombs fall, and the affected government(s) complains, they will have to realize deep in their hearts (no matter how much they say to the contrary) that they only brought it on themselves.
Sure, going after a sleeping dragon might be a good idea when you have a big enough sword and can kill it and end its "evil", but poking it in the eye with a box-cutter to show how mean it is just seems remarkably stupid, and nobody benefits.
-Eric
posted by 130.207.3...
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