I recently watched an episode of The West Wing (Sesaon 3 Episode 14: Night Five), and I thought that the dialogue between Toby and his ex-wife Andy were somewhat appropriate in regards to this whole illustrations of Mohammed uproar.
ANDY: America doesn’t have a monopoly on what’s right. And even if we did, I think you’re gonna have a tough time convincing the Arab world.
TOBY: Well, we’d like to talk to them about it.
ANDY: That ought to do the trick.
TOBY: It’s worth a shot.
ANDY: The U.S. Constitution defends religious pluralism. It doesn’t reduce all of Islam to fanaticism.
TOBY: Neither does the speech. It calls fanaticism fanaticism.
ANDY: Toby…
TOBY: It’s fanaticism whether we call it that or not, so were going to call it that. We respect all religions, all cultures.
ANDY: To a point.
TOBY: Yes, to a point. Grotesque oppression isn’t okay just because it’s been institutionlised. If you ask me, I think we should have gotten into the game three, four decades ago, but they’re coming after us now, so it’s time to saddle up.
ANDY: Toby…
TOBY: We do know what’s right.
ANDY: This is why they hate us.
TOBY: There’s a lot of reasons why they hate us. You know when they’re gonna like us? When we win.
ANDY: This will follow your paragraph.
TOBY [reading]: “Our goal is neither to preach nor proclaim American values. We have deep respect for our Islamic brothers and sisters and we have a great deal to learn from the values of… tolerence and faith that are deeply held throughout the Islamic world.” So this is your way of saying any resemblance the previous paragraph may have had to foreign policy is purely coincidental?
ANDY: That’s right.
TOBY: Guess what?
ANDY: What?
TOBY: Our goal is to proclaim American values.
ANDY: This speech isn’t supposed to be about ideology. It’s supposed to be about reality.
TOBY: I think the President will decide what the speech is suppose to be about, but the reality is, the United States of America no longer sucks up to reactionaries, and our staunch allies will know what we mean.
ANDY: We don’t have any staunch allies in the Arab world; just reluctant ones. We have a coalition held together with duct tape! A coalition without which we cannot fight!
TOBY: Nobody’s blowing off the coalition, and that coalition will be plenty strong.
ANDY: Oh, when we win?
TOBY: That’s right.
ANDY: What’s Egypt going to think? Or Pakistan?
TOBY: That freedom and democracy are coming soon to a theatre near them, so get dressed.
ANDY: Toby… you guys are on a thing right now. And I’m behind you. You know I’m behind you; a lot of House Democrats are…
TOBY: Not enough.
ANDY: And plenty of Republicans. But this one moment in time, you have to get off your horse and just… simply put – be nice to the Arab world.
TOBY: Be nice?
ANDY: Yes.
TOBY: Well… How about when we, instead of blowing Iraq back to the seventh century for harbouring terrorists and trying to develop nuclear weapons, we just imposed economic sanctions and were reviled by the Arab world for not giving them a global charge card and a free trade treaty? How about when we pushed Israel to give up land for peace? How about when we sent American soldiers to protect Saudi Arabia, and the Arab world told us we were desecrating their holy land? We’ll ignore the fact that we were invited. How about two weeks ago, in the State of the Union when the President praised the Islamic people as faithful and hardworking only to be denounced in the Arab press as knowing nothing about Islam? But none of that is the point.
ANDY: What’s the point?
TOBY: I don’t remember having to explain to Italians that our problem wasn’t with them, but with Mussolini! Why does the U.S. have to take every Arab country out for an ice cream cone? They’ll like us when we win!
TOBY: Thousands of madrassahs teaching children nothing, nothing, nothing but the Koran and to hate America. Who do we see about that? Do I want to preach America? Judeo-Christianity? No. If their religion forbids them from playing the trumpet, so be it. But I want those kids to… look at a globe. Be exposed to social sciences, history. Some literature. I’ll like us when we win.
ANDY: [after a moment] Okay.
“It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.”
“There is no avoiding war; it can only be postponed to the advantage of others.”
“Before all else, be armed.”
–Machiavelli
Totally off topic – we’re having our Krewe du Vieux parade party tonight show up between 7-7:30, then we’re walking down to Decatur to see the parade. (not sure if you saw my lj post)