Opinions and Editorials...

This is pretty interesting…From an op-ed in yesterday’s Der Speigel (“Evil Americans, Poor Mullahs”), one of Germany’s leading publications:

We've known just what they're like for a long time. The 19th-century German author Karl May taught us about the American Wild West, and Karl Marx warned us about unbridled capitalism. Besides, we've all been there at least once -- on vacation, of course. Be it in California or Florida (that's where you get the best deals on rental cars, you know), we can see right through the Americans.

For us Germans, the Americans are either too fat or too obsessed with exercise, too prudish or too pornographic, too religious or too nihilistic. In terms of history and foreign policy, the Americans have either been too isolationist or too imperialistic. They simply go ahead and invade foreign countries (something we Germans, of course, would never do) and then abandon them, the way they did in Vietnam and will soon do in Iraq.

Worst of all, the Americans won the war in 1945. (Well, with German help, of course -- from Einstein and his ilk.) There are some Germans who will never forgive the Americans for VE Day, when they defeated Hitler. After all, Nazism was just an accident, whereas Americans are inherently evil.

[…]

Not a day passes in Germany when someone isn't making the wildest claims, hurling the vilest insults or spreading the most outlandish conspiracy theories about the United States. But there's no risk involved and it all serves mainly to boost the German feeling of self-righteousness.

Not so safe

Iran is a different story. The last time someone made a joke on German TV about an Iranian leader, the outcome was not pleasant. Exactly 20 years ago, Dutch entertainer Rudi Carell produced a short TV sketch portraying Ayatollah Khomeini dressed in women's underwear. Carell received death threats. The piece, which lasted all of a few seconds, led to flights being cancelled and German diplomats being expelled from Tehran. Carell apologized. Jokes about fat Americans are just safer.

That last line pretty much says it all. Our kinder and gentler nature has just made America into a muscle-bound version of Rodney Dangerfield…we “don’t get no respect.” For all our inherent evil, the world understands there’s no penalty and little risk of retribution if you tweak our nose. No, you’ve got to kill 3,000 of us at a single go before we’ll kick your ass. And even then the outcome isn’t certain…especially if your tactics are to run, hide, and slowly bleed us… inflicting death and humiliation using the old Chinese “death by a thousand cuts.”

But, back to the op-ed. Given a choice between being loved or being feared, I’ll take fear every damned time. It seems to work pretty well for the mullahs, doesn’t it?

(h/t: Lex)

Charles Krauthammer, writing in today’s WaPo:

Thought experiment: Bring in a completely neutral observer -- a Martian -- and point out to him that the United States is involved in two hot wars against radical Islamic insurgents. One is in Afghanistan, a geographically marginal backwater with no resources and no industrial or technological infrastructure. The other is in Iraq, one of the three principal Arab states, with untold oil wealth, an educated population, an advanced military and technological infrastructure that, though suffering decay in the later years of Saddam Hussein's rule, could easily be revived if it falls into the right (i.e., wrong) hands. Add to that the fact that its strategic location would give its rulers inordinate influence over the entire Persian Gulf region, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the Gulf states. Then ask your Martian: Which is the more important battle? He would not even understand why you are asking the question.

Al-Qaeda has provided the answer many times. Osama bin Laden, the one whose presence in Afghanistan (or some cave on the border) presumably makes it the central front in the war on terror, has been explicit that "the most . . . serious issue today for the whole world is this Third World War that is raging in Iraq." Al-Qaeda's No. 2, Ayman Zawahiri, has declared that Iraq "is now the place for the greatest battle of Islam in this era."

This, in part, is Mr. Krauthammer’s response to fuzzy Democratic thinking, to wit: “Let’s end the Iraq war so we can concentrate on the real war: Afghanistan.” The enduring mystery (to me) is Krauthammer’s logic and the points he makes all seem so obvious. But, obviously (sorry!) it’s not. At least not to Democrats, anyway.

Speaking of Democrats…As part of an op-ed (Pork Goes to War) the NYT has a great graphic illustrating the types and dollar amounts of pork included in the supplemental appropriations bills passed by the Senate and House:

Despite their campaign talk about earmark reform last fall, the new Democratic leadership shamelessly used pork to buy votes — before the vote, Representatives Collin Peterson of Minnesota and Peter DeFazio of Oregon acknowledged that add-ons for their districts would influence their decisions.

The heavyweights also led by example: the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, added $20 million to eradicate Mormon crickets, and David Obey of Wisconsin, the House Appropriations Committee chairman, came away with $283 million for the Milk Income Loss Contract Program.

This chart (PDF), which is a partial list of some of the most egregious earmarks, shows that the new bosses are already feeding at the trough, and “war pork” threatens to sink their fiscal credibility.

The pdf is informative, if nothing else. This bill deserves a veto on financial grounds alone, no matter how much of the pork survives the House-Senate reconciliation process. The Iraq “timetable” is just a veto-sweetener.

News you can use…101 Fantastic Freebies, from PC World. I’ve chosen to link the Reader’s Choice section of this article, but there are alphabetical lists of all 101 items and more. I use several of these “freeware” apps, most notably g-mail, Nullsoft Winamp (a cool player that turns the ‘puter into my oh-so-expensive radio) and Ad-Aware SE…an anti-spyware app. There’s lots of great free stuff out there.

Today’s Pic: Detail on a sculpture of an Indian woman that stands just off the Plaza in Taos. I posted a full view of the sculpture back in September of last year…here. As always, click for larger.

Taos. May, 2004.