US Policy: A Reason For Rage

As Yogi Berra once said, "It's déjà vu all over again." Some putz releases a tasteless piece of garbage and Muslims the world over take offense. We were here before in 2005 after the so-called Muhammad cartoons appeared in the Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten. At the time, I thought the decision to publish was a premeditated attempt to provoke and bully. There was nothing "newsy" in them at all and they only served to mock a vulnerable group. When the outrage gathered momentum and started causing violent protests in such faraway locales as Jakarta, Indonesia, my opinion changed. I began to look to Muslim leaders to speak out against the violence, to explain to their fellow brethren that free speech is as sacred a right as is the freedom to worship.

Then I remembered "shock and awe," Guantanamo, and extraordinary rendition. Now add drones to that list. The reasons to hate are many. Flash forward to 2012 and today we're told it's all about a film. "The Innocence of Muslims" was simply a pretext, despite being produced by some jackass with the intent to offend. A sane reaction might be to shake your head and walk away, amazed that someone would actually spend millions to make such a piss-poor product. Or would it be saner to fight back any way you could?

The outrage engulfing parts of the Muslim world is fueled, in part, to distract from the failings and corruption of the local governments. It also has very little to do with a film and much to do with the failed policies of the US, once the sole preserve of Bush-Cheney, now the doctrine of the Obama administration. This rage has its reason.